Baltimore, MD – When Franklin D. Roosevelt was president and a loaf of bread cost about 8 cents, Paul Miller began teaching.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
That was 1934, and the 93-year-old Miller has been teaching math ever since.
Miller currently teaches calculus at Baltimore’s Ner Israel High School and has been instructing students in private and public schools, from elementary to college, for 75 consecutive years, WBAL-TV’s Deborah Weiner reported.
That covers a span of an estimated 27,000 school days.
“I think if I stop, I’d rust apart,” Miller said.
He has taught for 51 years at Ner Israel and has taught thousands of Maryland students with his trademark stress-free, mellow style.
“He just keeps going and going, learning more new tricks and new things to teach his kids,” said the school’s principal, Jacob Schuchman.
Students at the school have fathers and grandfathers who were taught by Miller.
“Mr. Miller has remained steady through the years,” said student Gavi Guttman, 16. “Not one generation, not two generations, but three.”
Miller is the son of Lithuanian immigrants, Weiner reported. His mother was illiterate, and his father was an indentured servant and self-taught math expert.
When Miller first started teaching, he made copies with a jellygraph, which involved the transfer of an original to a pan of gelatin or a gelatin pad. He recalled the Reynolds ballpoint pen as an invention that helped him.
Family members said Miller has never been officially recognized for his decades of work.
“It’s not going to affect our lives one way or another, but it would be really nice for his grandchildren to appreciate a grandfather who had this remarkable achievement,” said his daughter, Lisa Miller.
Weiner reported that Paul Miller’s children have made a case with Guinness World Records that he has the longest career as an accredited teacher.
Guinness currently recognizes a Brazilian woman who started teaching at age 12 and taught 96 years, Weiner reported.
Miller said he’s OK with that.
“I’m already in a book of records,” he said. “I’m in the telephone book. Who needs it?”
His son, Jeffrey Miller, said, “He feels like he is the wealthiest man in the world. He’s always taught us, ‘A wealthy man is happy with his lot in life.'”
Paul Miller said he believes deeply that a man who loves his job will never work a day in his life.
He has taught at Southern High School, the former City High School, Hopkins, Loyola, Essex, Catonsville Community College and others, Weiner reported.
“I’d like to go on for a long time,” he said. “Who knows?”
Wow! May he have arichas yomim veshanim in good health.
Mikol melamdai hiskalti.
He couldn’t do it if he was teaching in a bp yeshiva… Kol hakovod!
This is a nice feel-good story. However, I have yet to meet any teacher who has been teaching more than 25 years that is still qualified to teach in a classroom. There are new and better methods to teach. Time to retire.
He is still alive? I can’t believe it. I had him in the eighties. I went to be menachem avel to him when he lost someone back then. He told us he got good in Math because his father used to give them math problems to figure out over shabbos and they had to do it in their heads because they could not write on shabbos.
This is a great story! What impresses me is that with so many unpleasant kids we teachers have to deal with these days, Mr. Miller seems to take it all in his stride & is able to succeed where many of us don’t. I wish him many more years of service in good health.
Kol hakoved!! shall he live till 120 gezunterheit!!
This guy is truly amazing.
According to this article he has been teaching every single day for 75 years shabbos yom tov and all vacations. Should I prove it?!
75×360=27,000.
To make such a mistake for a math teacher is ironic.
May hr live and be well to 120.
A great teacher. We used to crack up when he’d teach division and he’d say “the 2 goes down the basement.”
he also taught in bais yaakov high school
He’s a legend. I had him for a couple of years worth of math in Ner Israel.
Mazel Tov on 75 years, cant believe he is still teaching, he was in his 70s when I was a student. He did have plenty of tough students over the years, but he has the right personality to keep right on teaching.
Mr. Miller is the best math teacher I ever had.
His class was always very orderly and he rarely had behavior problems with the students. He really earned the respect of his students and he deserves to be recognized.
Mazel Tov.
I had Mr. Miller at Ner Yisroel years ago and I see he hasn’t changed.
Why was he successful? 1. He is bright and knows the material “cold”. 2. He truly cared for each of his students. Their success was his success. He was never out to get anyone. 3. He is a big baal midos and that spread to the class.
Hang in there dear Mr. Miller. I have grandchildren coming to Baltimore !
He is and was a great teacher. He is an authentic genuis! Had him many many yrs ago!
That is a remarkable story.
My calculus teacher (in public schools) was quite amazing. He kept us hanging on his every word. I will never forget that he could draw a perfect circle (without a compass). That was amazing. I will never forget this teacher ever!
A great teacher I had him in Mechina in the 90’s for a couple of years..”sample test” anyone.
I think we can all agree that #3 is clueless.
Wow the one with the title! She WHAT?!! started teaching at 12 and went for 95 years?! What a fairy tale! that means she stopped teaching at 107? right. believe it or not. Guess I leave it for someone else to believe.
What a great teacher. I had him for trigonometry in 1968-1969 at Ner Israel.
He taught me a few years ago too. What a wonderful, nice, menshlich, person. Mazel Tov.
Let’s try this again and hopefully the VIN editors will realize that it wasn’t a prank posting. Those of us who had Mr. Miller as a teacher will remember this…. “Dog. Big Dog.”
Nice to see a Yeshiva with a qualified teacher. Practically every Yeshiva has a terrible secular department. My son had a math teacher in high school, who was trying to understand the book as he was teaching. As a result, our children have absolutely no opportunity to explore and find their likings, talents and strengths.
How I miss that true old fashioned Yid- simple, honest dedicated. Today, it’s all about how much money you make, what you wear, what kind of house you have, if you’re a wheeler dealer. Oh how I wish we can return to simple traditional values.
Wow ! Had Mr . Miller
Ner Israel `72 – `74 .I never did well in math ,but always did the homework . Mr .Miller passed me every report period . I was always greatful.
He taught me in the fall semester of 1990 at Towson State , while my brother had him simultaneously at Ner Israel. We both compared notes and loved learning from his can do attitude.
Both my wife and I were beneficiaries of his teaching. He is a man who just keeps on going and going. He was wonderful as a teacher and a true model for consistency in education. Great story!
It sounds like this teacher has something critical to teach to his younger colleagues—too bad there isn’t some kind of program for teachers to go observe him in action!!
On another note we once had an experience with an older teacher in a boys yeshiva who consistently addressed individuals in class and announced “you’re a failure!!!”. I don’t think the boys will ever forget this, and not for good…. The murmer around the school was that the man was too old to be teaching and should retire. This posting proves that age has nothing to do with it. There are good and bad teachers, young and old.
“Dog. Big dog. Wow. That brings back some memories. Mr. Miller was old even when I had him 20+ years ago. But, I agree with what #36 said – a dedicated, wholesome man. I think we tended to torment him, but I still recall his teaching method – five or six problems to solve for homework, and five or six students would solve them on the board at the beginning of the next day’s class. Mr. Miller would then review each student’s work, and even when we got it wrong, he never said anything that made us feel bad, he just came up and helped us correct it. And after that review, he would teach a new skill, and the process would repeat itself for the next day.
(In response to #3), in my diverse large public school system, we have a 75 year old calculus teacher, and a 63 year old Algebra 2 teacher, over 50 and 40 years teaching respectively. They are both great enthusiastic, caring teachers, who are up to date on technology, etc. Shame on you for making such assumptions.
Its what we need in all frum schools, were in school to learn, and middos is the first thing you need to know.
If you have a child with a elder teacher, remember its charcter that your bulding, because you can study for the rest of your life!!!!!
I remember that he would brag that he can draw a perfect circle! And he could!
i had him in ner for geometry and trig. he was great. he was always calm and knew how to teach a classroom. i still remember his army stories. he used to joke around about how he was the math guy in the army and thus was in the backroom with the secretaries(read: ladies) figuring out map coordinates and what not relating to math (he was never really clear on this part). he would tell us this story when we asked him what the point of knowing all this math was. i guess it worked. lol
In response to #3:
I have studied calculus in all my four years of college, and the stuff he’s teaching on the white board in the video is quite advanced – not usually taught until college level. The basics of mathematics never change, and the only thing that has changed about teaching methods is that it has become more watered down and less advanced.