Nigel Ratburn

Nigel Charles Ratburn (more commonly known as Mr. Ratburn) is the main antagonist in the Arthur series 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 that the name "Ratburn" is a play on the last name of Brown's algebra teacher.

Appearance and Personality
Mr. Ratburn is 100% pure evil. He eats nails for breakfast without milk (but doesn't eat the screws), he's beyond a vampire, he has Death Row underneth his desk, he sometimes but rarely eats the kids in his class if they get the answer wrong (Billy, name three oceans), and he tortures the class with really hard schoolwork.

He also 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 meanest nastiest strictest scariest teacher at Lakewood Elementary School. However, despite being evil, he likes cake, does puppet shows, and is the referee at Lakewood Elementary.

Past life
When Mr. Ratburn was very young, he liked to torment his sister, Rodentia Ratburn, by holding her over the stairs and then drop her on her head which Nigel loved to do so much that he did it over and over until Rodentia got brain damage (and thats why she thinks Arthur and his friends are babies)

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 (got the answer wrong and got eaten by Mr. Ratburn)
 * Chris

Jobs
Mr. Ratburn has a numerous amount of jobs. In the episode "Arthur and The Real Mr. Raburn" 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."
 * Mr. Haney demanded Ratburn to stop abusing the children in his 3rd Grade Class or else he'll be fired, Ratburn promised to stop all the things he did to the class but lied about the homework and schoolwork part.
 * 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.
 * Mr. Ratburn is the main villain on Arthur.