Mrs. Harrison — Tough and Intelligent Mathematics Teacher
My childhood heroine was/is my secondary school mathematics teacher, Mrs. Harrison. She inspired me in many ways, mainly for the kind of person she was. When she was in school it was quite unusual for a woman to study mathematics and she got a 1st class honours. She made me feel like I could choose to do anything I wanted — it didn’t matter if it was a “boy’s subject.” She was clearly very intelligent. Even the most difficult and unengaged students in my class were in awe by some of the things she knew and could talk about.
Mrs. Harrison was an exceptional teacher. She didn’t teach at the easiest of schools, but did not put up with any nonsense in her classes. She made us all feel like she genuinely wanted us to do well and was excellent at helping us get there, along with not hating mathematics too much along the way! She is one of the reasons I am a teacher today and I still look to her as an inspiration and hope to be as good as her one day. My friends and I still talk about her sometimes — she is one of those women you just never forget and makes you feel good inside when you think of her.
-Ellen Chisman
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