FROM FEMINISM TO
FRENCH LITERATURE, THE
ELLE TEAM REFLECT ON
A TEACHER’S ABILITY TO
SPARK LIFELONG PASSIONS200 ELLE.COM/UK^ April 2020
Perhaps their lessons stuck with you long
after you left the classroom – a poem
memorised that you can still recite word for
word, or a rhyme that helps you remember
the periodic table. Maybe they challenged
you to think differently or showed you the
power of using your voice. Or maybe they
simply inspired a teenage love affair with
Joy Division and Jean-Luc Godard films.
Our teachers can have a huge impact
on our lives. The best ones can change our
futures, helping us to grasp opportunities
that we thought were out of reach; to
decide which colleges or universities we
want to study at or what career paths we
follow. But more than that, they can help to
shape the type of people we become.
Here, ELLE writers and contributors think
back to their school days and remember
the teachers who inspired them the most.THE
TE ACHER
WHO
INSPIRED
ME
‘Sherry Ashworth
wasn’t like other
teachers. She
sat on the desk,
cracked jokes and told us
about feminism. She was also
a published novelist. And she
told me I could write. Years
later, after she retired from
teaching, she set up a publishing
company and published my first
novel when nobody else wanted
it. She changed my life twice.
I’ll always be grateful to her
for believing in me.’
EMMA JANE UNSWORTH,
author and ELLE contributor‘Ms Gordon was my
English teacher from
year nine to sixth form.
She’s the reason why
I became so obsessed
with words and stories. She was so
passionate about poetry and always
made us read lines from her favourite
poet, John Betjeman, out loud to make
sure we understood the lyricism. Now,
whenever I read Betjeman poems
(I have to read them out loud because
of her!), I think about her.’
HANNAH NATHANSON,
features directorElle PROMOTION FOR TEACHING