Hard Teachers 'R' Us: Fiction's Finest Educators Quiz / Test | Entertainment

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. He was a war hero, but which teacher of the principal kind had difficulty finding time for his true love between a domineering mother and trying to keep an unruly yellow kid in check?

Answer: Seymour Skinner

Seymour Skinner was the head teacher of Springfield Elementary School in the animated TV series "The Simpsons" (from December 1989). Harry Shearer provided the voice. Skinner had been a Green Beret captured by the enemy in the Vietnam War. That hardly toughened him enough to deal with the unruly kids, led by Bart Simpson. The love of his life was fellow teacher Edna Krabappel, though she had to fight for his attentions over the demands of his domineering mother.

Note: All of the "wrong" answers were also fictional teachers.

2. Which teacher had the prime task of helping make genteel young Scottish lassies fit for adult life?

Answer: Jean Brodie

Jean Brodie was the lead character in the book (and later movie in 1969) "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" starring Maggie Smith. The book was written by Muriel Spark, and was the story of Miss Brodie's time at a girls' school in 1930s Edinburgh. Her charges generally outshone all the other pupils, thanks to her cultured and enlightened ways.

3. Home and away he had a loose feeling for discipline and liked to keep things informal. Which teacher, however, was a bit of an impostor, in fact he had been relocated to sunny climes in a witness protection programme?

Answer: Harry Reynolds

Harry Reynolds was portrayed by Justin Melvey in the Australian soap opera "Home and Away" between 1999 and 2001. Reynolds was liked by his pupils, but survived being wrongly accused of being a stalker. Eventually he had to admit he was a whistle blower relocated from America on a witness protection programme - and there was a hitman after him.

4. Schools could be tough places, but which college dean was not so much in charge of an educational establishment, but an animal house?

Answer: Vernon Wormer

Vernon Wormer was played by John Vernon (November 24, 1932 to February 1, 2005) in the 1978 movie "National Lampoon's Animal House". The character also appeared in the TV serial "Delta House" in 1979. Canadian actor John Vernon appeared in scores of top dramas between 1957 and 2005.

5. Few teachers entered the profession just for the fame of it, but which kindly music teacher took pleasure in seeing his students progress? (It was a character that could live forever.)

Answer: Benjamin Shorofsky

Mr. Shorofsky was played by Albert Hague (October 13, 1920 to November 12, 2001) in the 1980 movie "Fame" about life in a drama school, and the TV series spin-off.

6. Some teachers treated their pupils like children, but which one tried treating them like adults - even if it didn't work until he took one of the troublemakers into the boxing ring and thrashed him?

Answer: Mark Thackery

Sidney Poitier played Mark Thackery in "To Sir, With Love" in 1967. This was the tale of a teacher who tried to bring to book a bunch of unruly London high school kids. It was a case of poacher turned gamekeeper for Poitier, who played one of the near-delinquent pupils in "Blackboard Jungle" (1955).

7. One would expect that someone who taught ethics would be a moral character, but which one orchestrated a little bit of fraud in the Election for places on the student government?

Answer: Jim McAllister

Matthew Broderick played Jim McAllister in "Election" (1999). This was a comedy/satire on the American system of electing pupils to a school government. McAllister set out to undermine the chances of one candidate, played by Reese Witherspoon, who had had an affair with a teaching colleague that led to his being sacked and divorced.

8. American high schools had a reputation for toughness: kids with guns; armed guards in the corridors. Which teacher battled the tough kids with poetry and Bob Dylan lyrics?

Answer: Louanne Johnson

Michelle Pfeiffer played Johnson in "Dangerous Minds" (1995). This was the tale of an idealistic teacher who proved tougher than even the toughest kids at Parkmont High School.

9. Away from the blackboard, teachers liked to relax and have their own family lives. Which teacher had a checkered working career that included spells as a newspaper editor and supermarket attendant, and still found time for four wives, two of whom died and one of whom divorced him? (And don't forget the 27 girlfriends...)

Answer: Ken Barlow

Ken Barlow was played by William Roache in the British TV soap "Coronation Street" He was one of the original cast when the show first aired in 1960. The adventures mentioned in the question took place over the succeeding 49 years of the show's run. Barlow was an educated man in comparison with the working class people who surrounded him on the street.

He was an intellectual, and, some said, boring. Boring? With all those wives and girlfriends?

10. You can say goodbye to this quiz by finding the name of a much-loved teacher who made life at boarding school easier for his boys. Which teacher's career embraced times of change from the era of a British Empire Queen through the Great War to the early days of WW2?

Answer: Arthur Chipping

Arthur Chipping was the teacher, and later headmaster, around whom life at public school revolved in the novel "Goodbye, Mr Chips", written by James Hilton. The novel took the story of 'Mr Chips' from his early days at Brookfield School in 1870 through the social changes that were to come about in WW1, the depression and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. Chipping was a kindly teacher who was idolised by his pupils.

Movie versions of the story were made in 1939 and 1969, with a TV movie in 2002 and a BBC TV drama serial in 1984.

Source: Author darksplash

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor DakotaNorth before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Teachers 'R' Us: Fiction's Finest Educators Quiz

Schooldays, the best days of our lives. They could be made or broken by the kind of teachers we had. See how many of fiction's finest you can spot.

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