Mr. Ratburn

Mr. Nigel Ratburn is a fictional character in the book series and television show, Arthur. He is an anthropomorphic brownish rat voiced by Arthur Holden.

He is generally thought to be the strictest third grade teacher at Elwood Elementary school, and is infamous for the amount of homework he gives out. This is in fact influenced by his own grade school teacher Mr. Price Jones who is much stricter than Ratburn, with example such as teaching Latin to 3rd Grade. More importantly, Mr. Ratburn just thinks hard work will always pay off. The students dislike him for his teaching method, but when he got a voice problem and his sister, who is more like the other teachers in the school, is teaching instead, the students are bored and want to "Learn something" from Mr.Ratburn.

In the episode Mr.Ratburn is introduced, he is thought of as a vampire by Buster, Arthur, and Francine after hearing from Prunella that "The Rat" eats nails, without any milk, but does not like screws. Mr.Ratburn has a softer side as well. In addition to being a teacher, he is a great puppeteer, magician, and referee. Mr. Ratburn put up puppet show for little children in his free time. Yet, he is very amateur at using the computer. When his house collapsed during a snowstorm, he had to live in Arthur's house for a little while before moving to Arthur's other friends' houses. Arthur is first resentful of him, but he quickly discovered his teacher likes many of the same things as he did, such as Spooky-Poo. He also was forced to stay in the frozen Lakewood Elementary along with the school's principal, Mr. Haney, and the janitor, Mr. Morris in that same storm.. According to him, he says his biggest new challenge will be "teaching kindergarten".

Quotes

 * "Are you having cake?"
 * "Arthur. I just dropped by to drop off the spring reading list--oh, are you having cake?"--Mr. Ratburn's excuse for having cake.
 * "What could be a better way to start the day than with a 100 exciting math problems?"
 * "Hand Alan. (Brain raises his hand) Sorry, no more questions"
 * "I give this cake and its owner a D, D for disgusting!" (in Arthur's dream)
 * "I need heads. I can wait for girls' heads, but I MUST have boys' heads immediately." (Later revealed to be ordering puppet heads)
 * "I'm an Uncle!"