21 Best Songs About Teachers Ever

Master Teacher by Erykah Badu

Song Year: 2008

“Master Teacher” is the song that introduced the term “woke” to mainstream culture. What it meant then was being aware of the struggle of one’s African ancestors and the constant struggle they faced.

The term today has become political and changed meaning, but the song asks what the world would be like if everyone was a teacher. How much better would all our lives be?

Rock ‘n’ Roll High School by The Ramones

Song Year: 1979

As the title track to Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, a 1979 film starring punk antiheroes The Ramones, “Rock ‘n’ Roll High School” is not the kind of song any teacher would want dedicated to them at graduation. Still, it’s about teachers, and not everyone loves every teacher they ever had.

Not everyone loved high school, for that matter. In the film, the band members play students bedeviled by a principal and his crusade against rock music. In a move that presaged Footloose, the band takes over the school, plays a concert, and makes theirs a rock ‘n’ roll high school.

The Art Teacher by Rufus Wainwright

Song Year: 2004

Not every crushing schoolgirl kisses her teacher like the young woman in the ABBA song. In “The Art Teacher,” from Rufus Wainwright’s 2004 album Want Two, he sings from the point of view of an adult woman thinking back to the art teacher she always secretly loved, but because the teacher respected his role in his students’ lives, nothing ever happened between them.

She realizes as she looks back that while he taught her about art, he also modeled for her an unattainable ideal. She sadly recognizes that she’s never loved anyone since that art teacher.

Teach Me Tonight (Hootenanny) by Amy Winehouse

Song Year: 2003

“Teach Me Tonight (Hootenanny)” is another song about a teacher who doesn’t work for any educational institution.

Amy Winehouse’s soulful voice pleads with her lover to teach her a thing or two tonight. When she mentions graduation, she’s not talking about any ceremony with speeches and mortar boards.

It’s an old Sammy Cahn lyric that was recorded first in 1953, but the dripping sexuality of it is all Winehouse.

Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd

Song Year: 1979

Not every song about teachers is a song about how great they are. Everyone had at least one crummy teacher at some point, and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall” aims right at those sub-par educators and the system that enables them. And as classic rock songs go, this one’s, well, a classic.

Accusing teachers of thought control, the song argues that kids need to be left alone. Too much interference by uncaring and inept teachers does more harm than good.

Hey, they’re not wrong.

Hey Teacher by Louis XIV

Song Year: 2005

The short-lived indie rock band Louis XIV brought a post-punk sensibility with them when they came out of San Diego. That sensibility explains, at least in part, the ineffability of some of their lyrics.

But in “Hey Teacher,” a drug-addled student tries not to act up in class even though he longs to be noticed by the teacher. He’s caught up in the paradoxes all around him:

• Don’t notice me, but please notice me.
• You’re too old for me, but I must have you.
• I don’t want drugs, but I really want some drugs.

Teacher, Teacher by .38 Special

Song Year: 1984

As 1980s movies about teachers go, 1984’s Teachers, starring Nick Nolte, isn’t the best or most inspiring.  But .38 Special’s “Teacher, Teacher,” the film’s theme song, rises above the film and stands as a feel-good anthem. Because that’s mostly what .38 Special records.

The lyrics echo the plot of most teacher movies: I’m the kid who’s hard to reach, but I need to learn stuff about life and the world around me. Although I’m going to give you lots of grief, I secretly know I need you in my life and that you care about me. Awww.

Teacher by Nick Jonas

Song Year: 2014

Oh, Nick. You were so cute as a kid when the Jonas Brothers first broke. Now you’re all grown up singing about sex.

In “Teacher,” he’s not singing to a math teacher he’s got a crush on. No, no, no. Instead, he’s pitching a come-on line to a woman who he’s sure he can teach a thing or two.

Nick, you little scamp.

The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils by Morrissey

Song Year: 1995

Anyone who’s been out of school for more than a decade or so can, if they pay attention, see that the power dynamics between students and teachers (and administrators) have changed. And if you look at it going back several decades, the change becomes more and more pronounced.

The teachers in Morrisey’s song get encapsulated in a line that proved controversial when the song’s album, Southpaw Grammar, debuted in 1995, eight years after he parted ways with The Smiths. The line refers to the relief a teacher would feel when it all finally ends and was assumed to be a reference to suicide at the time.

But the bottom line— school has changed since the old days— remains.

Hands by Jewel

Song Year: 1998

Jewel’s 1998 song “Hands” isn’t the most blatantly teacher-centric song on this list, but it sums up a teacher’s mission nicely.

She focuses her lyrics on her hands, saying that they’re not the most powerful hands in the world, but since they’re hers, she’s responsible for them. If anyone can change the world, they’ll do it with their own hands.

Just as our teachers taught us to keep our hands to ourselves when we were little, teachers can inspire us to learn the message of this song: our hands are our tools for making life better— for ourselves and those around us.

If a teacher teaches that, it won’t matter if the student never fully grasps calculus.

Top Songs About Teachers, Final Thoughts

On the list of things that inspire us, two items at the top would be music and our teachers. These artists (and many others) have combined the two to great effect. These songs about teachers show the good— and sometimes the not-so-good— teachers do in our lives.