- Mr. Ratburn
Infobox ArthurTVCharacter
name = Nigel Emil Ratburn
gender =Male
age: = 30-55
voice =Arthur Holden Mr. Nigel Ratburn is a fictional character in the book series and television show, "Arthur". He is an
anthropomorphic brownishrat voiced byArthur Holden .He is generally thought to be the strictest third grade teacher at Elwood Elementary School, and is infamous for the amount of homework he gives out. Marc Brown based the character of Mr. Ratburn his own grade school teacher, Mr. Price Jones, who is much stricter than Ratburn and thought nothing of teaching Latin to third graders. Mr. Ratburn thinks hard work will always pay off. The students dislike him for his teaching method, but when he got a voice problem and his sister, who is more like the other teachers in the school, replaced him, the students are bored and want to "Learn something" from Mr. Ratburn.
In the episode in which Mr. Ratburn is introduced, he is thought of as a vampire by Buster, Arthur, and Francine after hearing from Prunella that "The Rat" eats nails, without any milk, but does not like screws. Mr. Ratburn has a softer side as well. In addition to being a teacher, he is a great puppeteer, magician, and referee. Mr. Ratburn performed marionette shows for little children in his free time, but has very little idea of how to use the Internet. When his house collapsed during a snowstorm, he moved in with the Reads while his own house was being repaired. Arthur is first resentful of him, but he quickly discovered his teacher likes many of the same things as he did, such as Spooky-Poo. Mr. Ratburn also was forced to stay in the frozen Lakewood Elementary along with the school's principal, Mr. Haney, and the janitor, Mr. Morris in that same storm. According to him, he says his biggest new challenge will be "teaching kindergarten". He is now wearing a prep vest in the next season.
The Students
*
Arthur Read
*Buster Baxter
*Francine Frensky
*Muffy Crosswire
*Alan "The Brain" Powers
*Binky Barnes
*Fern Walters
*Sue Ellen Armstrong
*George Lundgren
*Prunella Deegan
*Jenna Morgan (will leave after Season 12)
*Steve (will leave after Season 12)
*Nameless rabbit girl (will leave after Season 12)
*Carl Skreever (New student will debut on Season 13)Quotes
*"Are you having cake?"
*"Arthur. I just dropped by to drop off the spring reading list--oh, are you having cake?"--Mr. Ratburn's excuse for having cake.
* "What could be a better way to start the day than with 100 exciting math problems?"
* "Hand, Alan. (Brain raises his hand) Sorry, no more questions"
* "I give this cake and its owner a D, D for disgusting!" (in Arthur's dream)
* "I need heads. I can wait for girls' heads, but I MUST have boys' heads immediately." (Later revealed to be ordering puppet heads)
* "I'm an Uncle!"External links
*http://pbskids.org/arthur/, Arthur Website
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.