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In my almost 20 years of schooling (pre and post-secondary), it has become difficult to pin down one specific teacher as best and worst. There has been some that were notable though in their own right:

Kindergarten: Ms. A. Bennett - Known for paddling her students--in KINDERGARTEN (this was 1979, and paddling was allowed in schools). And evidently she was good at it because every time a student got paddled in the cloakroom, they could come out crying a river. This put the fear of God in me to stay on the straight and narrow--and I never got paddled by her, though I came close once. I think she belonged to a sorority--just by the notion that she appeared to be good at swinging the wood.

2nd grade: Ms. Eleanor Gaskill (which my older brother and I often nicknamed Ms. Gasbutt). An old white lady that I thought was dumb ( I said that 2+3+5=10 on a math test and she marked an answer wrong). I was placed in her classroom after being labled LBD and that class was slow paced than a mu'lova--hence I was bored, constantly disciplined and thought 2nd grade was pure HELL).

3rd grade: Ms. Mary Estepp - actually I had 2 teachers that year. Check it out. I was still in a LBD class with a teacher who I liked a lot better, (Ms. Marsha Williams - a black teacher) but I went to a "regular" classroom for reading and math lessons, the teacher there being Ms. Estepp - a white teacher. Ms. Estepp loved me to death. She knew I had no business being in LBD and I'm sure she campaigned to get me out of the LBD curriculum. I was a "part time" student in Estepp's classroom and spent the rest of the day in Williams' classroom. I credit Estepp for introducing me to Judy Blume books - she even let me borrow the book Superfudge that she was reading to the classroom during spring break. I read that book 1,000,001 times during the break. She made my 3rd grade year heaven after a school year of hell. I have been trying to get in contact with her for a number of years to thank her for all that she did for me, but no such luck. But I'll keep trying.

4th grade: Alberta Edwards--I'll just say that if anybody here pledged Delta at Benedict College, she is one of your chapter sisters and she crossed c. 1963.

8th grade algebra teacher: Daphne Harris. She was a dark skinned black woman with a short Jheri curl that was extremely ornery and would give you a detention AND call your parents if she heard you cussing anywhere around school. She would also give detentions for you not turning in your homework--and she wouldn't collect it half the time. One of my classmates got back at her on the last day of school but putting a potato in her car's tailpipe and messing up her car in the process: she drove a 1980-something Datsun 300-ZX. Between her and Ms. Gasbutt, they were tied for the two worst teachers I had.

High school: hands down my favorite (male) teachers were Major Kent Freshwater and Chief Master Sergeant Doyle Hamlett. I would often chat with them during lunch and in the ROTC room during their non-teaching class period. Heck, my senior year myself and a few other cadets would sit in the ROTC room in lieu of study hall and watch $100,000 Pyramid and they were perfectly cool with that.

My favorite female teacher was Ms. Sandra Denton who is an AKA that pledged at U. of MO - Rolla c. 1968. I had the biggest crush on her and saw her at the AKA founders day luncheon that the Alpha Sigma Omega chapter hosted and she was so happy to see me.

I'll post the college professors in a separate post--if I think of any.