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 Lakewood Elementary School, and is infamous for the amount of homework that he gives. Marc Brown based the character of Mr. Ratburn his own grade school teacher, Mr. Price Jones (whom also appears in an episode), who is much stricter than Ratburn and thought nothing of teaching Latin to third graders. Mr. Ratburn thinks hard work will always pay off. The students dislike him for his teaching method, but when he lost his voice and his sister, who is more like the other teachers in the school, replaced him, the students are bored and want to "learn something" from Mr. Ratburn.

In the episode in which 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. Mr. Ratburn has a softer side as well. In addition to being a teacher, he is a great puppeteer, magician, and referee. Mr. Ratburn performed marionette shows for little children in his free time, but has very little idea of how to use the Internet. When his house collapsed during a snowstorm, he moved in with the Reads while his own house was being repaired. 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. Mr. Ratburn 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". He is now wearing a prep vest in the next season.

Also in the episode in which Arthur becomes interested the town's history and in particular when Sitting Bull visited Elmwood, Arthur asks Sitting Bull's "apparition" if there are any Native Americans living in Elmwood. It is revealed that Mr. Ratburn looks a lot like the Cheyenne that Sitting Bull he met while visiting town. Which leads the viewer to think that Mr. Ratburn's grandfather was the Cheyenne mentioned.

The Students

 * Arthur Read
 * Buster Baxter
 * Francine Frensky
 * Muffy Crosswire
 * Alan "The Brain" Powers
 * Binky Barnes
 * Fern Walters
 * Sue Ellen Armstrong
 * George Lundgren
 * Prunella Deegan
 * Jenna Morgan

One odd discrepancy about Mr. Ratburn is that in the introduction of the episode "Arthur's New Baby", he is referred to as Emil, rather than Nigel.

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 100 exciting math problems?"
 * "Hand, Alan. (Alan 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!"
 * "Just a little homework tonight."