Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you

18 questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you about what they want remembered

These are the questions people most regret not asking. They are also the ones the person most wants to be asked, if it is done with care. Bring something you made in their class. They will remember the lesson, and you will get a story about a classmate you had forgotten.

How to use this list. Ask by voice and record it. One or two questions a visit is plenty; the follow-up ("Who else was there?" "What did she say?" "What happened the day after?") matters more than the next question. The 7 marked tender come last: ask them once, late, in person, with "or would you rather leave that?" in the question.

1. Is there an object in your house that you would run back in for? What's its story?
2. What do you know now that you wish someone had told you at twenty-five?
3. What are you proudest of, that nobody would guess?
4. What is a thing you would hate to see written in a book about you?Ask it straight. It sets the rules for everything else and makes people braver, not shyer.
5. How would you like to be remembered, in one sentence?
6. If your life were a film, where would it start?Their answer tells you where the book starts too.
7. What do you want to say to the people who will read this?
8. Was there a recipe written down anywhere, or was it all in someone's head? Whose head?A recipe is an object with a story and an owner. Ask where it is now.
9. What did you build, fix or plant at a house that is still there, as far as you know?
10. Is there a friend you have never thanked properly? What for?
11. What did you make, fix, sell or look after that is still out there somewhere?Work that outlasts the worker is the chapter the family never thought to ask for.
12. Is there something you've never told anyone that you would like someone to know?tenderAsk only once, late, and with the door open: "or would you rather leave that?"
13. Who should get the things that matter to you, and why that person?tender
14. What do you think happens after? Has that answer changed?tender
15. What song do you want played at the end, and what should people do while it plays?tender
16. Is there a letter, a photograph or a paper you kept hidden? Where is it now?tenderA hidden object is a story with a location.
17. Who knows the real story, if anyone? Would you want them asked?tender
18. Is there a thing you would like told after you are gone, but not before? Who should hear it first?tender

What these questions are for

A good book about a person needs more than facts. It needs the person on the page: how they talked, what they wanted, what they did when it mattered, the story that shows them. These questions cover 9 of the things a writer needs about a teacher who mattered to you: objects, places, food, music, the story that shows them, beliefs and values, wants, fears and wounds, how others saw them, what they want said, key relationships, habits, routines and work, loves and tastes.

More questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you

• All questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you about their childhood
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you about their work
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you that are funny
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you for their advice
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you that go deep
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you for a quick conversation
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you about their school days
• Questions to ask a teacher who mattered to you about friendship

Or see questions for everyone else, and how to interview a parent about their life.