Young Sheldon Fans Agree That This May Be the Most Underrated Relationship on the Show
Most of the time it's not even considered a relationship.
Summary
- Young Sheldon is known for depicting a variety of relationships.
- Sheldon's relationships with his teachers are the most notable.
- His relationship with one of his high school teachers proved to be very fruitful for both of them.
The main difference between The Big Bang Theory and its super-successful spin-off, Young Sheldon, which allowed the prequel to attract a larger audience, is genre. While the former was a typical sitcom with an annoying laugh track and somewhat one-dimensional characters, the latter was a single-camera comedy-drama, creating a more intimate atmosphere.
Aside from the technical aspects, Young Sheldon was also much more focused on developing its characters and their relationships. Fans of the show had been following the troubled marriage of George and Mary Cooper for seven seasons of the spin-off. Meemaw's romance with Dr. Sturgis was also one of the show's most popular storylines. And Georgie and Mandy's fling-turned-marriage even got its own spin-off. And that's true for supporting characters as well – take George and Brenda's 'friendship' for example. But there was one relationship that YS fans don't even think about.
Docendo Discimus
This Latin proverb, meaning "by teaching, we learn," perfectly describes Sheldon's relationships with most of his teachers and mentors - his superior intelligence exceeded that of most of his teachers (shout out to the brilliant faculty at Heidelberg University), who learned a great deal from him.
In Season 7, Drs. Sturgis and Linkletter admitted that they became interested in string theory after Shedlon's intricate publication in an international physics journal. But this dynamic wasn't new to the show. In fact, Sheldon had a similar situation with one of his high school teachers who helped him learn a lot of new things.
Ms. Evelyn Ingram, the math teacher at Medford High School, must have felt most humiliated by Sheldon during her classes. His mathematical genius often embarrassed her in front of the other students. But it also drove her to improve her own knowledge.
A Mutually Beneficial Relationship
That would just be a hilarious 'the student is smarter than the teacher' trope, but Ms. Ingram and Sheldon's dynamic was more than that. Unlike the other teachers at the school, she accepted the challenge that Sheldon posed and strove to be a good match for him. And it helped her become a better teacher who could pass on her knowledge to dozens of other students.
In turn, Sheldon also benefited from his relationship with Ms. Ingram. As ironic as it may seem, Shelly learned how to be a teacher by teaching Evelyn, which came in handy years later when he became a faculty member at CalTech. For this reason, Sheldon's relationship with Ms. Ingram deserves much more recognition.