Nigel Ratburn

"Arthur: I bet Mr. Ratburn assigns another report today. Buster:Yeah, he hasn't assigned one since... yesterday."

- Arthur Read and Buster Baxter

Nigel (formerly Emil ) Charles Ratburn III, often known as Mr. Ratburn or simply 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 in Background Blues, but was renamed to "Nigel" in subsequent seasons. Mr. Ratburn is the son of Otto Ratburn and Lisa Ratburn.

He is named after Marc Brown's seventh grade algebra teacher, Fenton Ratburg; 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 always carries a briefcase with him to class.

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 kid, he had two outfits: A school uniform that was colored blue like Glenbrook Academy's dress code and the uniform that had the school's [[Media:Glenbrook Academy Logo.png|badge on it]]. Then he had casual clothes; which he wore to events, like the Father's Day picnic. That consisted of a blue-buttoned shirt with a white shirt under it and blue pants.

He used to be a "fat rat", until he learned how to play ping-pong.

Future Life
Not much has been seen about Mr.Ratburn's future. But if the future in the episode,"Buster Makes The Grade" happens Mr.Ratburn will continue his career as a teacher at Lakewood Elementary.

Other media
In the Living Books computer games, he came out in Arthur's Teacher Trouble, even though there's a shadow look-alike of him walking outside while Arthur and Jane 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), Mr. Ratburn's appearance was the same as he looked in the cartoon show.

Students
Mr. Ratburn has 13 students (that sit in groups of 4) in his class. A majority of his students used to be in Mr. Marco's 2nd grade class. Some of his students moved to Elwood City and attend his class.
 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * The Brain
 * Binky Barnes (twice)
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * Fern Walters
 * George Lundgren
 * Jenna Morgan
 * Alex
 * Maria
 * Ladonna Compson

Former students

 * Prunella Deegan
 * Billy
 * Chris (books only)
 * 4th Grade Female Cat (Number 2) ("Tipping the Scales")
 * 4th Grade Male Aardvark ("Tipping the Scales")

Jobs
Mr. Ratburn has a numerous amount of jobs. In "Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn," it's revealed that Mr. Ratburn's a teacher, a basketball coach, and works on the school newspaper. In his spare time, he administers puppet shows that are popular among young kids. In "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 "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?!" His love for cake is also shown in "The Rat Who Came to Dinner." Ratburn is also fond of pecan pie and brownies, as revealed in "Arthur's Perfect Christmas."
 * 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 "Best of the Nest."
 * The car that Mr. Ratburn drives is a red roadster convertible.
 * In Arthur's Almost Boring Day, he was shown to have gone to the same school as 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 Spooky-Poo, a play on the Hanna-Barbera-based Scooby-Doo show.
 * In "Arthur's Baby," Mr. Ratburn's mom calls him Emil.
 * He was in a rock band called "The Ratburn Rats" in College.
 * Mr. Ratburn knows nothing about computers. Thinks a blog is a place where people informed in episodes "Muffy and the Big Bad Blog," "D.W.'s Stray Netkitten," and "The "A" Team."
 * In "Bitzi's Beau," Mr. Ratburn's full name is said as Nigel Charles Ratburn in Buster's fantasy.
 * Maybe Emil is Mr. Ratburn's middle name.
 * In "Cents-Less," Mr. Ratburn is shown feeding two goldfish, whom he calls Vladimir and Estragon. It would seem that Mr. Ratburn has named his pets in honor of two characters from Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot.