Opinion Time

gleek49:

Who’s the better teacher

Ms. Honey or Mr. Feeny?

For all you pop culture deprived individuals, Ms. Honey is from the movie Matilda(look it up). Mr. Feeny is from Boy Meets World(if you don’t know this one you should probably be punched by Gallagher’s hammer sideways).

So, who has answers?

I think this is a fabulous question, and one which I am prepared to expound upon at length. FORTHWITH.

We face many difficulties in answering this question. To begin with: HOW COULD YOU EVEN CHOOSE THEY’RE BOTH SO AMAZING.

But also how do you even define “best teacher”. Do we mean “best at educating children?” Second for second we have more in-classroom data on Feeney, and it has to be said that he was not always at his best in the classroom. Was he a great man? Yes. Did he care about his students? (Or at least Cory/Shawn/Eric/Topanga?) YES. But that often came through more outside the classroom, in his driveway (!) or like when he was playing trumpet at Cory & Topanga’s wedding. In the classroom he was kind of a downer, while Ms Honey was all aces, doing secret agent shit behind the Trunchbull’s back. Kind of awesome, literally risking her life to give her kids the education they deserved. Although you could say Feeney basically made the continuing education of Cory & Shawn his life’s work, what with his constant job changing. Which is maybe as bad boundaries as it is to have your student come live with you but hey.

Another problem is that Ms Honey is pretty self-actualized when we meet her. She has her shit together, she’s good at what she does, she immediately recognizes something special in Matilda, and offers her the one thing she really needs: safety. Feeney on the other hand has a longer journey. When we first meet him he is Other. He is the enemy teacher, the pain in the ass between the scenes of Cory & Shawn’s life. But he grows with them over time and eventually he’s not Other, he’s Family. The kids get it. He was a pain in the ass, like, almost always, but he gave a shit, he didn’t just pop in and out like Turner or Shawn’s mom. And that’s kind of amazing, right? Like I think about my high school teachers, the few who really supported me and recognized something in me and had a very strong hand in shaping the direction my life took, when a lot of other people were failing me, and it’s like, ugh. I wish they were still in my life, you know? I hope they’re alive somewhere, happy and alive. So that relationship gets hilarious as the show progressed and they had to jump through more and more hoops to keep Feeney on screen, but man. So nice.

I guess another problem is that the student-teacher relationships aren’t quite on equal footing. Cory is ostensibly the star of Boy Meets World, but it’s Feeney’s relationship with Shawn that provides so much of its heart. Feeney cares about Cory, but he’s not super stressed about him. The relationship between Shawn and Feeney is more analagous to the relationship between Matilda and Ms Honey–a teacher responding to a kid in crisis. (Although! Sidebar! Feeney never offers to have Shawn come live with him, but TURNER DOES. And Turner is the one who saves Shawn from the cult, so I mean real talk, that is the more analogous relationship, but hey but we’re talking Feeney here, not Turner.)

So, here’s the thing. Both Ms Honey and Mr Feeney are amazing and it is a CRIME to ever have to choose between the two. But honestly, Ms Honey’s a little buttoned-down for me, with her teatime and her Laura Ashley dresses. Feeney is the dude I would want in my life, looking out for me guardian angel style, but with good boundaries so it doesn’t get weird.

Feeney forever. 

  1. mulannemuller answered: no one will ever be better than Mr Feeny, lets get real here
  2. brookemarlow1022 answered: Mr. Feeny
  3. daughterofthekingx-blog answered: OH GOSH. SUCH A HARD DECISION. But…I’d have to go with Mr Feeny. He always had a backbone. It took Ms. Honey a long time to find her’s.
  4. soniasaraiya answered: FEENEY FOREVER. 100% agree. (Miss Honey is awesome, but it’s just not the same.)
  5. inspectoracrostic reblogged this from kfan
  6. kfan reblogged this from ferventgrubble and added:
    I think this is a fabulous question, and one which I am prepared to expound upon at length. FORTHWITH. We face many...
  7. s-s-sailaway-blog reblogged this from ferventgrubble
  8. kkrystyna answered: Mr. Feeny!!!
  9. moreaboutbri answered: Ms.Honey
  10. callmecabanas-blog answered: Mr. Feeny. he was a permanent fixture in their lives. plus its MR. FEENY!!!
  11. iliekfreezies answered: feeney! hands down.
  12. ready-shready answered: feee-heee-heee-heee-naaay
  13. whythinktoomuch answered: Ms. Honey!
  14. willownight179-blog answered: Ms. Honey did adopt a child from a horrible home. That’s some commitment right there lol
  15. blackadamschefter answered: Mr. Feeny close, but Feeny !
  16. juttatis answered: Mr. Feeny, that guy teached about life.
  17. ferventgrubble posted this