Teller, the short mute one from Penn & Teller, is a master magician who's deeply respected by all in the magic and entertainment industries. But did you know that in a former (and presumably more vocal) career he was also a high school Latin teacher?

Jessica Lahey, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and an English teacher, got to interview the man about his philosophies on education and how to captivate even the most disengaged students...

The first job of a teacher is to make the student fall in love with the subject. That doesn’t have to be done by waving your arms and prancing around the classroom; there’s all sorts of ways to go at it, but no matter what, you are a symbol of the subject in the students’ minds.

... “I’m 5’8” and was about 160 pounds those days, so I was not the kind of person who could walk into a room of rowdy kids and [they] would just pay attention to me. What I have, however, is delight. I get excited about things. That is at the root of what you want out of a teacher; a delight in what the subject is, in the operation. That’s what affects students.”

... Some subjects can’t be taught without the showbiz, Teller asserted. Teaching Shakespeare as a text, before students have seen a production, is the surest route to kill off any enthusiasm for The Bard. Students must watch Shakespeare before they read it, he said. “Until you've seen what the idea [of Shakespeare’s work] is, it’s really like handing a child an orchestral score and saying, ‘Imagine this music.’ Well, you can’t; you have to be Mozart to do that.”

Be sure to read the full interview here and check out his performance talent on stage below.