The impact teachers have on our lives lasts a lifetime. Even though most schoolteachers instruct countless children throughout their careers, they remember how the students affected their lives, too. A perfect example of this is the exchange between pop megastar Harry Styles and his first teacher from primary school on June 15.
Between songs at his concert at Emirates Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Styles stopped the show to find someone in the audience. It was no easy task, there were 74,000 people at the show.
“I’m going to ask a favor from you because I’d like to try and find someone in the audience,” he said, according to CBS News. It was his “first-ever schoolteacher” Ann Vernon. The gig was a homecoming for Styles, who grew up in nearby Cheshire, and he was told that some of his former schoolteachers may be in attendance.
u201cHarry Styles paused his concert, asking fans to be quiet so he could find someone in the crowd u2013 his former school teacher u2764ufe0f https://t.co/nCaqMVKJfEu201d— CBS News (@CBS News)
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Styles scanned the massive crowd for Vernon until he saw someone he thought was her. Unfortunately, it was her colleague, Mrs. Bailey.
“How are you? I heard you’re retiring,” he called out to the person he thought was Vernon. “I’d just like to thank you for everything in those formative years. And yeah, thank you so much, it means a lot to me that you’re here tonight.”
“Can you imagine dealing with me when I was 4?” Styles joked. He then dedicated his next song, “Canyon Moon,” to his former teacher.
Even though Vernon wasn’t at the gig, she got Styles’ touching message. Bailey called her and shared a clip of the exchange. After the concert, Vernon appeared on “The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show” on BBC Radio 2 to talk about what it was like teaching young Styles.
u201cu201cHe was a little bit of a monkey, bit cheekyu201d ud83eudd7ann@ZoeTheBall managed to track down @Harry_Stylesu2019 first teacher, Mrs Vernon, after her shoutout at his gig last night in Manchester. ud83eudde1u201d— BBC Radio 2 (@BBC Radio 2)
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“As a teacher, you remember all of the children that you’ve taught, all of them are amazing in their own way,” Vernon said. “Harry obviously has gone on to mega, mega things—everybody at Hermitage is just so, so proud of him.” She recalled that he was a “delight” and that he had “a cheeky sparkle in his eye, he was a little bit of a tinker some of the time but he was a character so that’s for sure, we all remember him.”
A big part of Styles’ appeal is that he’s a nice guy who will “take a walk on a Sunday through the afternoon” with you. Some might have thought that it’s just an image he’s trying to sell the world, but it’s pretty easy to believe it’s true after seeing him stop a show to salute one of his teachers.
He was also gracious to his audience whom he thanked for coming to a show near where he grew up.
“This is an absolute pleasure to be here at my home show, I cannot begin to tell you how much it means to me to play here tonight and all of you for coming,” he said, according to Yahoo News UK.
“Some of the happiest times of my entire life have been making these last couple of albums, and some of the happiest times of my life have been right around the corner from here. So it feels pretty perfect to me playing these songs to you here tonight,” he added.