50 free Teacher trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
41 free teacher trivia questions with answers. This teacher trivia quiz was built for staff-room quizzes, teacher-appreciation events and anyone who has ever stood in front of a class. Forty-one questions cover the real teachers who became legends (Anne Sullivan, Christa McAuliffe, Jaime Escalante, Erin Gruwell, Maria Montessori, Horace Mann), the teachers everyone knows from film and TV (John Keating, Dewey Finn, Mr. Holland, Ms. Frizzle, Miss Honey, Professor McGonagall, Mr. Feeny, Janine Teagues, Walter White), and the odd history of the school day itself: the first American public school, why school buses are yellow, where kindergarten came from and who first fought back against homework. Most questions are pitched so a mixed staff-room team can argue about them; a few are hard enough to settle who really knows their pedagogy. Feel free to lift the whole set for an end-of-term quiz. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the people, shows and institutions involved, and each question carries its source.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Anne Sullivan is best remembered as the lifelong teacher of which deaf and blind author?
Helen Keller
Sullivan was herself partially blind after childhood trachoma and had begged her way into the Perkins School for the Blind.
Q 02NASA's Teacher in Space taught which subject at Concord High School in New Hampshire?
Social studies
Christa McAuliffe planned to teach two lessons from orbit before Challenger broke apart in January 1986.
Q 03Jaime Escalante, the inspiration for Stand and Deliver, taught which subject at Garfield High?
Calculus
Born in La Paz to two teachers, he had taught in Bolivia for 12 years before immigrating and learning English.
Q 04Which actor was Oscar-nominated for playing Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988)?
Edward James Olmos
The film was added to the National Film Registry in 2011.
Q 05Erin Gruwell's students at Wilson High in Long Beach compiled diaries that became which 1999 book?
The Freedom Writers Diary
Hilary Swank played her in the 2007 film; Gruwell had started as a student teacher assigned the lowest-performing class in 1994.
Q 06Before creating her educational method, Maria Montessori qualified as what?
A physician
As a girl she enrolled at an all-boys technical school hoping to become an engineer.
Q 07Which philosopher was hired by Philip II of Macedon to tutor his 13-year-old son Alexander?
Aristotle
The lessons took place at Mieza; the pupil became Alexander the Great and the tutor founded the Lyceum in Athens.
Q 08The name 'Confucius' is a Latinisation roughly meaning what?
Wise Teacher Kong
Jesuit missionaries coined it in the late 16th century; the man himself was born Kong Qiu.
Q 09Horace Mann, 'The Father of American Education', built the public school system of which state?
Massachusetts
As secretary of its Board of Education from 1837 he pushed universal public schooling, and most states copied the model.
Q 10Founded in 1635, which is the oldest existing public educational establishment in the United States?
Boston Latin
It was modelled on the grammar school of Boston, England, and its first classes met in the schoolmaster's home.
Q 11Which German educator coined the word 'kindergarten' in 1840?
Friedrich Fröbel
It literally means 'garden of children'; he had opened his Play and Activity Institute at Bad Blankenburg three years earlier.
Q 12World Teachers' Day is celebrated annually on which date?
5 October
Established in 1994, it marks the signing of a 1966 ILO/UNESCO recommendation on the status of teachers.
Q 13Which 1939 conference organiser is known as the father of the yellow school bus?
Frank W. Cyr
His week-long meeting at Teachers College, Columbia, set national standards including the colour now called National School Bus Glossy Yellow.
Q 21In Dead Poets Society, John Keating teaches his students which Latin phrase?
Carpe diem
Robin Williams' Keating also has the boys stand on his desk to see the world differently; the film grossed $235 million on a $16 million budget.
Q 22In School of Rock, Jack Black's Dewey Finn poses as a substitute teacher at which school?
Horace Green
Richard Linklater's 2003 comedy was the highest-grossing music-themed comedy until Pitch Perfect 2.
Q 23Which actor plays music teacher Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)?
Richard Dreyfuss
Holland takes the job in 1964 to buy time to write a symphony and stays for decades; Dreyfuss earned an Oscar nomination.
Q 14The 'lead' in a pencil is actually a mix of clay and which mineral?
Graphite
The great deposit found in Borrowdale, Cumbria, in the 1500s launched the pencil; casings are usually hexagonal to stop them rolling.
Q 15Early blackboards were made of thin sheets of what?
Slate
The word is attested in English from the mid-18th century, and large boards were used for music teaching in Europe as far back as the 1500s.
Q 16In 1880 which city's school board was persuaded to ban teachers from setting maths homework?
Boston
Economist Francis Amasa Walker made the case; two decades later journalist Edward Bok campaigned against any homework before age 15.
Q 17Which English school, founded in 1552, is believed to be the first to require a uniform?
Christ's Hospital
Its long blue coats gave rise to the term 'bluecoat school'.
Q 18As late as 1930, roughly what share of US school buildings were one-room schoolhouses?
65%
They served about 30 percent of rural pupils, and consolidation shrank their numbers rapidly through the 1920s and 30s.
Q 19Which country's schools are famous for topping the PISA international rankings in the early 2000s?
Finland
Its system runs from daycare through an 11-year comprehensive school starting at age seven.
Q 20The US National Teacher of the Year program began in which year?
1952
It is run by the Council of Chief State School Officers, and winners are traditionally honoured at the White House.
Q 24Abbott Elementary is set in an underfunded public school in which city?
Philadelphia
Creator Quinta Brunson named it after Joyce Abbott, one of her own favourite teachers, and based Barbara Howard on her mother.
Q 25Which grade does Janine Teagues teach when Abbott Elementary begins?
Second grade
Janine teaches second grade at the start of the series; Brunson won the 2022 Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy.
Q 26Which author and illustrator team created The Magic School Bus books?
Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen
Scholastic wanted to combine science with story; the pair later made Ms. Frizzle's Adventures to teach social studies.
Q 27In Roald Dahl's Matilda, what is the name of Matilda's kind teacher?
Miss Honey
Jennifer Honey tries to move Matilda up a class and is refused by the tyrannical headmistress, Miss Trunchbull.
Q 28Which subject does Minerva McGonagall teach at Hogwarts?
Transfiguration
She is also head of Gryffindor and deputy headmistress, and gives Hermione a Time-Turner in the third book.
Q 29Which actor plays George Feeny, the teacher and neighbour of Cory Matthews on Boy Meets World?
William Daniels
The show ran seven seasons on ABC's TGIF block from 1993 and spawned Girl Meets World on Disney Channel.
Q 30Before becoming Heisenberg, Breaking Bad's Walter White taught which subject?
Chemistry
Creator Vince Gilligan wanted to turn 'Mr. Chips into Scarface'.