My most influential teacher

I feel privileged to have encountered many exceptional and inspiring teachers throughout my life. Perhaps most influential were the early-day childhood teachers, whose guidance potentially changed the course of my life.

Kaka Ani was the computer class teacher in 4th-5th grade. We had a classroom full of Pravetz 8, Bulgarian-made Apple II clones. These had 5.25″ floppy drives and the teacher had 10-15 floppy disk games. So Kaka Ani’s strategy to control us and make us learn something was that she would give an assignment in Basic with either enough hints or something close to a solution on the blackboard, and then whoever does it first, gets to choose a game from the pile of floppies. Some of the games were good and others were miserable. I liked Moon Patrol, Karateka, and Lode Runner. If I was too slow, I’d play some artillery game, my memories of which did not yield any Google search results. I hated that game. So I learned Basic and some university-level math to play games. Thanks, Kaka Ani, I hope you’re doing well.

This computer class didn’t happen in isolation. The environment was good for kids who were willing to put in some work. I don’t remember the names of my 1st-grade teacher or the math teachers from 4th-7th grade but they were good and somehow managed to help me develop my thinking without the obscene amount of homework my kids bring home these days.

Then I studied at the High School of Finance and Business (now NFSG). I don’t remember a teacher who wasn’t great there. The math teacher, Mrs. Chipchakova, had a pace that matched me very well and got me confident to pursue math-based universities later in life. The computer science teacher there let me play with Turbo Pascal while the others studied Word and Excel for DOS after proving to her that I knew the entire books by heart. The Bulgarian language teacher scared the hell out of me and this helped me learn to write. We studied touch typing with 50-year-old typewriters and metronome, the Stats teacher covered the discipline better than my university-level Stats #1 and #2, and the Accounting one was also a magician.

I studied Information Systems at FMI a bit later in life. I once again found a place where you could learn a lot even from the silliest-sounding disciplines, thanks to the effort put in by teachers and management who care.

I’m very thankful to all of them – those I mentioned, and those I didn’t. I hope my kids have the chance to meet similarly inspiring teachers.