There are many teachers in the world; some are okay teachers and there are some good teachers. But it’s rare that you can actually find that perfect teacher. You know, the one that makes sure you learn, cares about you and your opinion and can actually hold your attention for more than five minutes. Those are hard to find nowadays as any thing else of actual quality. But some how, some way I actually had the luck to find one of those rare teachers. It is a year in history (literally) that I’ll never live down.

His name is Mr. Marzulli, and he teaches ancient civilizations, my favorite kind of history. Now teaching is not just teaching; it’s an art. You can either succeed in trying to get every one to understand what you are trying to say in your class, or you don’t. A subject is just a subject until some one comes and brings it to life. That’s exactly what Mr. Marzulli did. He could have been monotone and boring and read his ‘teachers guide’ word from word. But not him. He would actually ask for our opinions and ideas and give us feedback. He would answer our questions and give us facts for better understanding. He made his class interesting.

My fondest memories of his class were the cookies. Every week for good behavior, Mr. Marzulli would go out on his own time and buy us fresh chocolate chip cookies. This would be the best when we would read from our text enjoying our cookies and his reading. Through this method, everything would sink in and we would learn. When most kids come back to school the next day, they can barely remember their homeroom number much less their last class lesson. Every day, I would be excited to go back to Mr. Marzulli’s class and learn something interesting again. We would do fun activities that pertained to our lessons. Some of those would include excavating things, creating ancient artifacts, and just working with our friends on worksheets. We would get work done and leave his class having learned something interesting and worth telling our family and friends. And who knows… when we actually make it on ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’? Those facts might actually come in handy.

I loved it when we would watch movies like Ben Herr and would discuss certain scenes. He would make sure we understood what was going on and why. Mr. Marzulli was not just a teacher; he was a friend. If possible, he would give examples of mistakes and how to avoid them. Plus, he would also ask how we were doing, and we would just talk about things and life. Mr. Marzulli was our friend. Most teachers can’t say that they have a healthy relationship with their students like he did. He is a one-of-a-kind teacher and person.

Mr. Marzulli gave out cookies, made class fun, talked to his students, was caring, and more than anything, he made sure we actually left the classroom with something new in our brains. He made history as much a chore as eating candy. And everybody likes candy.