There’s a well-known saying ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’.

However, many people who are famous for excelling in other areas used to be teachers.

From inventing to making people laugh, the following famous people list sets out to dispel the myth and prove that those who can, teach.

1. Alexander Graham Bell

Although he is famous for inventing the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell spent much of his life teaching.

During his childhood, his mother’s increasing deafness sparked an interest in acoustics.

Aged 16, Bell put this interest into practice when he started as a teaching assistant of elocution and music at the Westin House Academy in Scotland.

In 1865, after graduating from university, Bell returned to the school as an assistant master.

He also presented Visible Speech demonstrations with his father at a London private school for the deaf, and even travelled across the Pond to work at prestigious American deaf schools.

1. Art Garfunkel

Art Garfunkel, of the band Simon and Garfunkel, may have a name attributed to one school subject, but his talents also lay in another: Maths.

Garfunkel studied Art History and Maths at Columbia University, and even taught Geometry at Litchfield Preparatory School in Connecticut for a while.

Perhaps he could have made a career out of teaching, but then came the release of ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ – and the rest is musical history.

1. J.
   
   K.
   
   Rowling

J.K.

Rowling is famous as the creator of the most magical world in literary history.

Before she shot to worldwide fame, Rowling taught English in Portugal after a difficult divorce and the tragic death of her mother.

Portugal may have even been the birth place of Harry Potter, as Rowling plotted out the Harry Potter series whilst abroad.

When she eventually returned to Scotland, Rowling started an education course at Edinburgh University, but her ultimate goal was to be an author.

1. Sir William Golding

Everyday life is often an inspiration for many authors.

For Sir William Golding, this was the case whilst teaching Philosophy and English at Bishop’s Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury, Wiltshire.

In a bout of untraditional teaching, Golding once opened the floor to unrestricted debate during one of his classes.

Although this resulted in complete chaos, it also gave him enough insight into humanity, or lack of, to write his debut novel, ‘Lord of the Flies’, which earned him the Nobel Prize for Literature.

1. Greg Davies

If you are young and into your comedy, then you will certainly know famous actor and comic Greg Davies best as Headmaster Mr Gilbert in the cult Channel 4 series ‘The Inbetweeners’.

It is clear that Davies is committed to ‘method acting’: prior to his role, he spent 13 years teaching drama and English at schools in Berkshire and Twickenham.