Anime is educational, you know!
Being a teacher is hard because you're not only tasked with the job of passing on your knowledge of a specific subject, but you also take on the role of a mentor to the younglings. Sometimes teachers become a little bit more than that.
And no, we're not going into the ecchi territory with the romantic teacher-student subplots, we're talking about teachers who share their outlook on life with the kids. So here are five teachers who taught us valuable life lessons. Not all of them are actual teachers, but that's not the point.
Itoshiki Nozomu (Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei!): Everything sucks
Itoshiki-sensei provides a (un)healthy dose of nihilism, fatalism, and pessimism. His despair is wrapped in hilarity, but underneath it all lies a very valuable lesson. Every event can be viewed from different points of view, both positive and negative, and it's up to you to choose which one you prefer.
Also, he peels the covers off of a lot of Japanese customs and traditions that hinder the potential of his students, which also helps them realize what they want from life and what to achieve.
Reigen Arataka (Mob Psycho 100%): Your life is your own
Technically, Reigen is not a teacher, but a mentor. Okay, not even a mentor, but a fraud who uses child labor, but that, surprisingly, doesn't make him a bad person.
Because Reigen, an ordinary human who runs the office that supposedly deals with paranormal activity, teaches Mob, the kid who has the supernatural powers, to deal with such activity, that he doesn't have to change himself in order to be liked by others. He teaches Mob that it's fine to be himrself. And, thankfully, he also learns that himself.
Nanami Kento (Jujutsu Kaisen): Keep being a kid
There's a huge problem with battle shounens with kid protagonists: these kids are forced to grow up way too fast and deal with the problems that even some adults cannot handle. So this simple phrase from Nanamin, where he tells Yuuji, the protagonist, that being a child is not a sin, is quite heartbreaking.
The world that they live in is harsh, and the school is even harsher, but that doesn't mean that Yuuji, a literal child, has to bother himself with adult stuff and beat himself up for not being able to deal with it.
Saitama (One Punch Man): You are valuable
One of the most on-the-nose lessons that we can get from Saitama is to keep moving to achieve your goals. But the one that lies underneath it is the one about self-esteem and self-respect. His relationship with Genos is weird: he never wanted to have another creature living by his side 24/7.
But Genos was adamant about learning the secret of his power; instead, he learned to value himself and to stop seeing himself only as a tool or a weapon. He recognized his self-worth. And so should you.
Koro-sensei (Assassination Classroom): Never stop learning
This piece of advice is also shown in a quite convoluted way, but Koro-sensei helps those around him understand that knowledge would make their lives better.
In the lore of the series it helps his students to stay alive for a little longer or to be more effective at maiming, but still, each learning experience leads to your personal growth and development and changes you. So, don't stop.