Nigel Ratburn

Nigel Charles Ratburn is a fictional character and the main third-grade teacher at Lakewood Elementary School. He has appeared since the 1st Season. His given name was originally "Emil" as seen in Arthur's imagination of him as a baby in Arthur's Baby, but was renamed to "Nigel" in subsequent seasons.

He is named after Marc Brown's seventh grade algebra teacher, Gary Rathbun; and of course the name "Ratburn" is a play on the last name of Brown's algebra teacher.

Appearance and Personality
Mr. Ratburn's appearance consists of a green suit complete with a solid yellow shirt and bright red necktie (in the books, his uniform ranges to different colors). Being a rat, he has long whiskers, which he appears to keep trimmed. He has brown clumps of hair in the books; although in the cartoon show, his hair was restricted to thin black lines. He also wears his shirts tucked into his pants and always wears a belt buckle with his pants. His casual clothing consists of a cream-colored T-shirt and faded blue jeans. For formal occasions Mr. Ratburn wears a charcoal or black Tuxedo jacket with a white Tuxedo shirt black bow tie and charcoal or black Tuxedo trousers. When outdoors for something like fossil-hunting Mr. Ratburn wears a dark brown hat with a yellow line on the bottom of the tip of the hat going all around the tip. He also wears a very light yellow or beige shirt a dark blue scarf tucked into the shirt. There is also a short-sleeved beige jacket with two pockets one on each side of the jacket and two shoulder straps one on each side of the jacket. He also wears blue shorts very light yellow or beige socks and light brown boots.

He tends to give out a lot of homework to the kids in his class, sometimes assigning two research projects in the same week. Because of these tendencies, he is often considered the strictest teacher at Lakewood Elementary School. However, many of Arthur and his friends find out he's not as bad as they first thought, although the Brain seems to have no problem with him, but Buster has the strongest dislike for homework.

Though he is a cool and calm character, in some dream sequences, he cackles uncontrollably.

Past life
When Mr.Ratburn was a baby, he was wearing a light blue sweater with a white collar, a red bowtie, white cloth diapers with pins, and bright red shoes and blue socks. As a child in school, he wore a similar uniform that was colored blue like Glenbrook Academy's dress code, and the uniform also had the school's badge.

Other Media
In the Living Books computer games, he appeared in Arthur's Teacher Trouble, although there is a shadow look-alike of him walking outside while Arthur and his mom are out shopping for party supplies in Arthur's Birthday. He was voiced by David Kessler before the cartoon show replaced him with Arthur Holden.

In the later computer games such as Arthur's Thinking Games, his appearance was the same as he looked in the cartoon show.

Students
Mr. Ratburn has twelve students in his class. His students sit in groups of four. A majority of his students were formerly in Mr. Marco's second grade class.


 * Arthur Read


 * Buster Baxter


 * Francine Frensky


 * Muffy Crosswire


 * Alan Powers


 * Binky Barnes (twice)


 * Sue Ellen Armstrong


 * Fern Walters


 * George Lundgren


 * Jenna Morgan
 * Alex
 * Maria
 * Otis

Former students

 * Prunella Deegan
 * Billy
 * Chris

Jobs
Mr. Ratburn has a numerous amount of jobs. In the episode "Arthur and The Real Mr. Ratburn" it is revealed that Mr. Ratburn is a teacher, a basketball coach, and works on the School Newspaper. In the episode 'The Short Quick Summer', Mr. Ratburn got a summer job at Jack's Joke Shop, where he worked as a cashier and helped Sue Ellen learn a card game magic trick.

Trivia

 * Mr. Ratburn was taught in the 3rd Grade by Mr. Pryce-Jones of Glenbrook Academy, who later became a rival of Ratburn's at the Medieval Fair. Ratburn was heavily influenced by Mr. Pryce-Jones, remarking that sometimes he thinks, "..I'm not a tough enough teacher."
 * In the episode "Dad's Dessert Dilemma", Mr. Ratburn is shown to have an unnatural love for cake, to the point of snatching a plate of cake from a child before he has a chance to eat any of it. He used the excuse "I came by to bring you the spring reading list" three times, each time feigning surprise and exclaiming, "Oh, are you having cake?!"
 * Outside of school, Ratburn is shown to enjoy many jovial pursuits, such as magic, puppeteering, and camping.


 * Mr. Ratburn didn't know how to use the internet or even turn on a computer until The Brain showed him how in the episode, "Best of the Nest."
 * The car that Mr. Ratburn drives is a red roadster convertible.
 * In Arthur's Almost Boring Day, he was revealed to have gone to the same school as Arthur's father David in a grayscale film, and around the same age as David; although in The Return of the King, he went to school at Glenbrook Academy, which is a different school than where David went to school.
 * He went to high school with Bailey, Muffy's butler.
 * Mr. Ratburn is a fanatic of the show called Spooky-Poo, a play on the Hanna-Barbera-based Scooby-Doo cartoon series.
 * Saying something about work makes the students at Lakewood Elementry School no good.
 * His mother in the episode "Arthur's Baby," his mother calls him "Emil."