We’ve been greeted with a lot of cartoon educators through the years.
Some are considered the top of their subject and are
well loved.
Some couldn’t care less about their students and are only there for a paycheck.
But which of these animated educators sculpt young minds for the better, and which
ones are downright terrible?
I’m Kyle with WickedBinge and this is Cartoon Teachers: Good to Evil.
For this list, we’ll be covering some of the most well-known teachers we felt earned
a mention in our ranking.
Some a staple of our childhood and some that became relatable
in adulthood.
As usual, we'll be starting with the most pure and noble character and working
our way down.
These characters are The Good.
Our Gold Medal of Good goes to Mr Simmons.
Mr Simmons was known as someone that supported all of the traits that made
his students unique.
Even those who didn’t watch the show frequently, everyone knew of
his frequency of using the word “special” when talking about his class and their interests.
He won Teacher of the Year and though he didn’t make for a good principal, he
was enough of a fan favorite to re-appear in the
Hey Arnold Jungle Movie.
Teachers like Mr. Simmons don’t come around often, and
you’re lucky if you’ve had one.
Our next spot goes to Lisa’s favorite substitute, Mr Bergstrom.
He filled in for Ms Hoover and made quite the introduction.
This was an early episode of The Simpsons, during a time when Lisa was a far more vulnerable
character who was just beginning to gain validation for her talents and intellect.
With Bergstrom, Lisa was able to express herself and finally find confidence in showing
off her saxophone playing and know-how.Though he was only shown in this one episode, the
man gave a lasting impression and left Lisa with some much needed advice.
Next on our list is the peace-loving Miss Grotke.
Unlike many of the other teachers in Recess, Grotke was always patient with her
students and saw the potential each one of them had.
She was sweet and honest and made a point to tell the truth to her students.
She didn’t sugarcoat the way the corporations pollute the planet and brainwash their
consumers or the fact that America is in fact not the greatest country in the world,
explaining that many other countries thrived in ways the US does not.
And of course, you have to love the fact that she had busted
out her martial arts training to protect her students.
Next on our list we have Miss Frizzle.
Known for her adventurous spirit and never-ending optimism, she’s an expert at
nearly every subject from the human body, to
weather, to history.
While seeing her field trips play out on screen is nothing short of
entertaining, we have to drop her a little lower since it is putting the kids in a lot
of danger.
But we aren’t going to place her too low since Frizzle always has a backup plan
when things are becoming too hairy.
While the trips are something that would concern parents or the school, Frizzle obviously has
some less than human abilities on her side.
Taking our next spot we have Ms Baker.
One of the main teachers on Clarence, Ms Baker is shown inside and outside of the classroom
during the series, which sets her apart from a lot of educators on our list.
She was always encouraging all forms of expression, and helped her students to channel
their energy in a way that would be fulfilling to them such as when she advised
Clarence to do comics for the school paper rather than drawing on all of his assignments.
And though Baker clearly had some doubts about her life, she ultimately let
her passion for teaching lead her.
We’re going to throw in Mr. Van Driessen from Beavis and Butthead next.
Now, it’s easy to make fun of this soft spoken hippy,
and we all laughed when he got gun-butted by a rifle…
But Mr. Van Driessen is clearly a caring teacher.
Anyone who has the amount of patience he has when dealing with
Beavis and Butthead deserves a lot of credit.
Heck, he even got them to put effort into the craft of animation.
Next on our list we have Nigel Ratburn.
Once believed to be harsh and evil, Ratburn quickly made his way as one of the most fondly
remembered teachers during our childhood.
Though Aruthur was on PBS, Ratburn didn’t hide his distaste for
meaningless enforcement through prizes and did his best not to dumb down hiscirriculum.
We have to give him props for studying as many topics as he does, to the
point that he obsessed over defeating the smartboard Hugo in a game of wits.
Next we have driving instructor Mrs Puff.
Now we won’t be going into the theories of
how she became a driving instructor since they are a bit dark.
But we did want to mention her as a typically fun teacher that
liked to use reward systems to motivate her students.
She was determined to get Spongebob out of her class by any means
necessary, but we can’t really blame her for that.
After having to endure a hundred different car accidents, we would want him
away from us too.
Taking our next spot we have Mr Lancer.
Though Danny struggled a lot in school, Lancer was always seen pushing Danny and the
other students to do better.
Even being quoted at one time while all beat up nothing
was going to stop him from giving them an education.
And of course everyone remembers his use of book titles in place of
profanity.
Next we have the woman turned troll, Miss Skullnick.
And we don’t mean that figuratively.
Margret Skullnick was not ‘teacher of the year,’ but she wasn’t the worst
instructor.
What we dropped her lower for was her impatience with her students, but she
was also shown to be protective of them.
Skullnick wasn’t the best at knowing how to
deal with Star and sometimes lashed out about her relationship troubles.
But after Star accidentally turned her into a troll, Skullnick
wound up embracing the change rather than being resentful towards Star, seeing
the newfound strength as a way to reclaim her
prime years.
She’s even seen aiding Star on a couple of adventures, including saving
the students from being hurt on an interdimensional field trip.
Next we have the legendary Edna Krabappel.
Even for those not fans of the long-running show, you likely know this woman.
Even if it’s only for her iconic laugh and fondness for cigarettes.
Over the years, Edna has been shown as a romantic at heart.
She shows a lot of displeasure towards Bart but, rather than dismiss him, she makes an
effort to try and help him improve.
She allows him to find things to do when in detention
to keep him occupied.
She offers him extra credit when he shows to have actually
studied and learned something for his exam so he wouldn’t get held back.
And she was the one to lead the fight for better supplies
for the school to help all of the students’ lives
improve.
Next we have another instructor from Clarence, Mr Reese.
A man bent on romance and justice, he has his immature moments but is
overall a good guy.
He’s often seen keeping the peace on school grounds and overlooking
detention.
But while it would beeasy for him to be a mean guy, he isn’t.
Mr Reese instead often looks to the students for
their input and tries to meet them halfway.
He had been the one to help Clarence get back into writing his comic and the way Reese
and Clarence hunted down who threw the meatball sub was an endearing episode.
Next we have the stubborn Shoop.
She’s in charge of the students when playing and
doing physical education and takes the job of molding the kids into model citizens very
seriously.
She isn’t the most approachable woman, often shunning anyone trying to be
close to her.
But we see through her memories that she was raised sheltered by a stern
mother who didn’t believe in letting Shoop have fun with the other kids.
So we give her some leeway.
Next is the one-time substitute for Ms Baker, Meg Julep.
Fresh to the teaching game, she’s a bundle of nerves for her entire
time on screen.
She has trouble managing the students and is easily spoken over by Jeffery
who tries to take control of the class.
She doesn’t notice when Clarence slips away
to find Ms Baker.
And when the woman returns to teach the class about cicadas,
Meg just sits in on the lesson.
She isn’t the most noticeable person in the room, but she’s
always seeking to improve and tries to please as best she can.
We can only imagine how much her teaching skills improved
after she asked for Ms Baker’s advice.
Taking the first spot
in
our neutral section is Mr Small.
A well-meaning guidance counselor, he makes a point to not hurt anyone
or anything if he can avoid it.
To the point that it can completely consume him.
He’s driven to be inspirational to the point that
he would be nominated for some sort of award, but he isn’t good at helping his students.
Even his song Take My Advice is just a collection of standard things people are told
growing up such as “walk a mile in someone else’s shoes” or “what doesn’t kill
you makes you stronger.”
But we give him credit for caring and making an effort.
Next we have Gumball and Darwin’s main teacher, Miss Simian.
She isn’t really known for being the most understanding.
In fact, there are plenty of times where she lashes out
while on the hunt for someone to discipline, completely disregarding anyone trying to
talk some sense into her.
However, the show is centered around Gumball and Darwin,who are often the ones causing
trouble and in the wrong.
For all the scoldings Simian gives the two boys concerning their poor grades
and tardiness, we also see her making a point to congratulate them on any work they
do well.
Such as when Gumball wrote ‘dental hygiene” all three of his answers
for a small test.
Though one out of three isn’t the best score, she did make sure to show
happiness at this being the best he had ever done on a test in her class.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but considering we see that
she has poor social skills in an earlier episode, we give her some credit.
Next we have the three-time winner of Tom Landry’s Teacher of the Year, Peggy Hill.
While we love King of the Hill, we will be the first to admit that Peggy is not the best
teacher.
Sure she has love for her students, but Peggy is not always making the
smartest call.
She is unwilling to learn how to improve her skills when showing work
over test reviews, stating she is done learning.
She refuses to believe her Spanish leaves a lot to be desired, even when she
accidentally kidnaps a child during a field trip.
And we can’t forget the time she pretended to be a nun just to get a full time teaching
position.
Next we have Lisa’s music teacher, Mr Dewey.
Known for his sour face and strict teachings, he doesn’t settle for his students
to perform less than they are capable of.
But we have to place him lower on this list for one episode in particular.
Like with the gym teacher, Brunella, Dewey had disregarded
Lisa when she was displaying signs of depression.
Now, we get that having students not play what is being taught in class can
be a huge distraction.
But Dewey then went on to lecture Lisa before a performance,
asking if there would be anymore “creativity” from her, clearly not in the mood to deal
with her going against the lesson but also not being bothered to alert someone to her
sudden shift in behavior Next we have the embodiment of gloom herself,
Ms Bitters.
She isn’t the nurturing type, but the older you get while watching
episodes of Invader Zim, the more her lectures make sense.
We see in flashbacks that Ms Bitters had once been a happy and
hopeful girl that wanted to be an astronaut, but got some harsh reality checks from life
that made her the woman she is today.
So as a result, she teaches her students that they are most likely to amount to little more
than their parents: working dead end jobs in
a filthy city dealing with ungrateful people.
Next we have Morty’s math teacher Mr Goldenfold.
He was a little tricky to place since we can’t say the lessons are entirely his
fault.
Just from getting glimpses at the testsand some of the sections of the lessons we hear,
Goldenfold teaches what is basic math.
And it’s difficult to make something like that engaging for high school students
who should already know all of this stuff.
Not to mention Goldenfold has some clearly inappropriate thoughts concerning his students
as seen in his dream version of Summer and how he doesn’t force Morty to wake up
from his own dream about Jessica.
Next up we have Lisa’s regular teacher Ms Hoover.
Unlike Edna, she’s not as memorable.
And when it comes to the teacher strikes, she treats it more as a vacation,
rushing from class before the students have time to process the information.
She’s usually seen jaded, speaking in dead panned
tones and waiting for the day to end.
And she took the risk of giving Lisa a B+ rather
than an A simply because she felt everyone needed a mark on their record somewhere.
Next we have to mention the gym teacher Brunella.
Though she’s seen as a pretty frequent background character in Springfield,
she doesn’t have a lot of major interactions with our main protagonists.
The thing that drops her far on our ranking is
one conversation in particular in an early episode.
When Lisa struggles with depression, she’s unable to find the motivation to participate
in class, which leads to Brunella approaching her and asking why Lisa wasn’t
dodging the ball.
When Lisa replies she’s too sad, Brunella brushes her off and continues
the game.
Now, we don’t want to say that Brunella is a heartless person, but this
was cold.
Even if mental health was dealt with differently at the time this episode
released, this still looks careless.
Next we have third grade teacher, Audrey.
We see her when Bart is sent back a grade while Lisa is advanced one.
She isn’t a malicious teacher exactly, but she clearly
doesn’t know how to nurture a student taking the chance to take on a more challenging
curriculum.
And it was a weird choice to decide to not only connect Lisa and Bart’s desk
in a prison-like fashion, but why would you boost Bart’s grade higher just because Lisa
was getting emotional?
We have to add in another teacher from Beavis and Butthead...
Coach Buzzcut.
There isn’t a whole lot to say about this angry
guy.
He is always so enraged that he can’t help but shout to his class.
He bullies his students and he is prone to violence.
Granted, Beavis and Butthead are not ideal students,
to say the least, but that doesn’t excuse this guy’s behavior.
Though, he did defend the boys from Mr. Candy at one point…
Which earns him a couple points.
Next we have teachers tied from The Simpsons: Ms Cantwell and Mr Lassen.
Unlike Mr Bergstrom, Cantwell was a sub that had
no interest in getting to know her students past what they did for her in class.
And once she saw Lisa, she had decided right awaythat she was going to torment the poor
girl.
We learn by the end of the episode that the reason for Cantwell’s bullying was due to
her own experiences in grade school.
She labeled Lisa as a stereotypical mean pretty
girl that planned to get by on her looks even though Lisa was seen putting forth effort
in her studies.
The torment led to Lisa struggling with her studies and almost enduring
a breakdown.
In her brother Bart’s case, he was stuck with Mr Lassen.
Lassen was a cutthroat man that used physical discipline
to intimidate Bart.
While he and Cantwell were both in the wrong for picking on students,
we can at least give Cantwell some credit for not lashing out quite like Lassen did.
Bart had endured being shaved, violently shocked
and chased with fire before Lassen was finally fired from his position.
Next up is the fairy obsessed Mr Crocker.
TImmy often claims that Crocker is out to get
him.
And since the show is from Timmy’s perspective, it’s easy to sympathize with why
he would think that.
After all, Crocker does love failing students.
But the fact is Timmy is a bad student.
He doesn’t do well on tests, never does his homework and does the bare
minimum in class.
Whereas kids like AJ always put forth the effort and their grades are
a reward for their hard work.
That said, Crocker is absolutely insane and dangerous…
and without a doubt one of the worst teachers you could ask for.
Finally, we have to give the Gold Medal for Worst teacher to South Park’s, Mr Garrison.
While there have been a few teachers on the show, none of them are quite as well loved
and well featured as Mr Garrison is.
Now while Garrison is seen as a smart man who is
capable of teaching various grades, inventing new modes of transportation, running a
country and taking sense into his class and the town, we had to drop him low for a few
reasons.
After all, it is not a good look to force rodents up your assistant’s rear in front
of a bunch of fourth graders.
It’s not cool to be discriminatory towards students just
because how they do things annoys you.
And we cannot okay venting out your frustrations violently in front of a bunch
of children.
Even when you disregard the absolutely insane stuff he is guilty of, Mr. Garrison’s actual
teaching methods are terrible…
In early seasons, we see that he spends much of the
time in class explaining sitcom trivia and other useless information.
And when a student gets an answer wrong during math, he belittles
and insults them.
Garrison is absolutely the worst educator out there.
But what do you think?
Who are the most good and evil teachers in animation?
Let us know in the comment section.
Don't forget to hit that notification bell and binge our
Good-to-Evil playlist.
Where we break down the morality of the characters in your
favorite cartoons, shows and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked!