We asked you:

“What’s the most memorable thing a teacher has said to you?”

The Teachable Moment Project collected remembrances from you of the teachers in your life.

By intentionally leaving “memorable words” open to your interpretation, we heard from you about teachers who inspired you, as well as teachers who derailed dreams.

We've divided your responses up according to these themes: encouragement; life advice; teacher humor; career advice; succeeding in spite of a teacher’s words; sexism toward girls and boys; teacher burn-out; words that were, well, just mean; and teachers who were tough, but fair.

It’s clear that after many years, teachers’ words have a huge impact on who we become and how we see ourselves.

Here are some of the words and deeds you remembered.

Notes: some submissions were edited slightly for length, but grammar has been left as submitted, for the most part.

Succeeding in spite of a teacher’s words