March 27, 2020

Well, we thought Dumbledore’s Army might rally a bit harder, but no magic was a match for nostalgic March Teacher Madness favorite George Feeny.

Like last year, dozens of people shared their favorite Feeny gifs on our Facebook page and virtually shouted their favorite’s warcry: Fee-hee-hee-hee-hee-ny!

OK, maybe that’s taking it a bit too far, but fans were passionate for Mr. Feeny, played by William Daniels in “Boy Meets World” and “Girl Meets World.”

“I was about to go all ‘How could you make me choose?!?’ But my heart says Feeny; he is one of the reasons I became a teacher,” wrote K.R.

“Look, it doesn’t matter who else is on this list, year after year. Mr. Feeny is the teacher we wish we had and the teacher we hope to become. He will always win. Go ahead and retire him (but he’ll come back, just like he did in the show!) and give someone else a shot,” wrote R.M.

And judging from these results, he could probably to a threepeat next year. We’ll have to think about that.

Speaking of next year, lots of people talked about their favorites who didn’t make the list. But they could next year. Maybe Mr. Hand or Mr. “Fluffy” Iglesias or Miss Crabree.

We must have reached a whole bunch of new people. There were so many inquiries about Ms. Frizzle of “The Magic Schoolbus” from folks who didn’t know she competed last year.

“This whole tournament is a sham. Where’s Ms. Frizzle????” B.P. asked.

Maybe we’ll add a “By Popular Demand” category next year.

We were sorry to see a personal favorite, Miss Nelson/Viola Swamp, lose out in the first round, but it wasn’t a big shock since her competition was Dumbledore. What was a bit more of a surprise was Miss Honey’s win over Marvel Comics’ Professor X.

He was winning for awhile, but “Matilda” fans came out in force in the final hours and pushed Miss Honey to the win.

“She was in a terrible school and still made sure that her children were in a good class,” J.T. said. “All of her kids knew they were loved and she did her best. Dumbledore was manipulative and kept secrets. Everything would have been much easier if he would have told the truth.”

And while the historical teachers didn’t get as many votes, we were happy to give some attention to Dr. Rosa Gragg, an educator and activist who made a name for herself not too far from Meemic’s original headquarters in Detroit.

In the 1920s and ’30s, she was a teacher, principal and college department head in Georgia. After she married businessman James Robert Gragg and moved to Detroit, she founded the Slade-Gragg Academy of Practical Arts, the first vocational school in Detroit for African-Americans, though all races were welcome.

Thanks to the Detroit Public Library for the use of one of their photos.

Stew Gordon, one of our agents and a former educator, said he always shared this clip with his students on the last day.



We hope you had as much fun with March Teacher Madness as we did. We look forward to bringing it back next year with lots of new competitors.