Nigel Ratburn

Nigel Charles Ratburn (formerly Emil Ratburn ) is a 3rd Grade teacher at Lakewood Elementary School.

Physical appearance
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. He also wears blue pajamas and in one episode he wore a turquoise night shirt  and another episode he also wore tan colored sweater and black pants and wear brown or black slippers.

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.

Personality
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 after he explains about organization, self-discipline and how they can do their homework in time for things they like to do, although the Brain seems to have no problem with him, but Buster has the strongest dislike for homework. Although he is cool and calm, he cackles uncontrollably in the dream sequences that the other characters have involving him.

He often struggles with modern technology, such as computers, though finally became acclimated to a tablet device called the BoysenBerry.

Past life
When Mr. Ratburn was a baby, he was wearing a light blue sweater with a white collar, a red bow tie, 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 badge on it. Then he had casual clothes that he wore to events, like the Father's Day picnic. They consisted of a blue-buttoned shirt with a white shirt under it and blue pants.

He used to be a "fatty rat" (in his words when talking with Arthur in Arthur Weighs In) until he learned how to play ping-pong.

As a young adult, he attended Elwood City High School with Bailey, David Read, and Mr. Haney.

In college, he was in a band called the "Ratburn Rats".

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. He becomes a 4th grade teacher in season 19.

In 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
See Nigel Ratburn's class.

Jobs
Mr. Ratburn has numerous 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

 * Outside of school, Mr. Ratburn is shown to enjoy many jovial pursuits, such as magic, puppeteering, and camping.
 * The car that Mr. Ratburn drives is a red roadster convertible.
 * Mr. Ratburn is a fanatic of Spooky-Poo, a play on the Hanna-Barbera-based Scooby-Doo show.
 * A running gag is Mr. Ratburn knowing nothing about computers or the Internet.
 * Another running gag is his love (almost obsession) of desserts, especially for cake.
 * 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.
 * For the first few seasons, he has brown skin then changed to orange in the next few seasons and back to brown in season sixteen and seventeen.
 * It is revealed in Arthur's Baby (episode), he knew how to write multiplication sentences at age 1 (or possibly 2).
 * He went to high school at the same time as David Read and Mr. Haney.
 * He may or may not be part Native American (specifically ).

Episode Appearances

 * Season 1
 * Arthur and the Real Mr. Ratburn 102a
 * Arthur's Spelling Trubble 102b
 * Buster's Dino Dilemma 103b
 * Arthur Accused! 106b
 * Buster Makes the Grade 107b
 * Arthur's Almost Boring Day 120a
 * My Dad, the Garbage Man 126a
 * Arthur's Substitute Teacher Trouble 127b
 * I'm a Poet 128a
 * Season 5
 * The Lousy Week 505a
 * You Are Arthur 505b
 * Season 8
 * Bugged 803b
 * Desk Wars 807a
 * Muffy's Art Attack 808a
 * Season 9
 * Castles in the Sky 901a
 * Tipping the Scales (flashback) 901b
 * George Blows His Top 902b
 * Arthur Weighs In 903a
 * The Law of the Jungle Gym 903b
 * Buster's Green Thumb 904a
 * All Worked Up 905b
 * A is for Angry 907b
 * The "A" Team 908a
 * D.W. Beats All 909a
 * Season 20
 * Buster's Second Chance 2001a