This Video of One of the Coolest English Teachers Ever Will Make You Smile

His students call him Schmo, Mr. Schmo, Big Daddy Schmo, or Pimp Daddy Schmo—and he’s pretty much the teacher we all wish we had.

Los Angeles native Barry Smolin has been teaching English for 28 years. Lately, using a light saber, he’s been convincing ninth graders at Hamilton High School Humanities Magnet in Los Angeles that really, there’s no difference between them and young Telemachus in the Odyssey. Over the decades he’s had a profound impact on his students; many of them have gone on to become English teachers themselves. (He taught author Edan Lepucki, who recently published her first novel, California.) Funny, passionate, and brilliant, Smolin does the great names of literature justice while opening up (or as he says, "blowing away") young minds. Just never mention to him the saying “Those who can’t do, teach.”

Read more and watch the video at TakePart.com.