Editing Mr Gilbert (section)

=== Personality ===
Mr Gilbert has a biting wit and sarcasm which he uses to convey his dislike of his job and the children for whose care he is responsible. Will attempts to endear himself often with Mr. Gilbert and is rebuffed – even on the one occasion when they both agree on something.

He hates his job and the students. He shows no interest in their education and welfare. On the few occasions he acts to stop wrongdoing (such as [[Mr. Kennedy|Mr Kennedy]] grooming [[Neil Sutherland|Neil]]), he tends to defuse the situation without resolving the problems that caused it. He is sadistic towards students who get on his nerves, giving them unfair punishments or threats. An example for this was in the season 3 episode Will's Dilemma when Jay and Neil spotted Gilbert at Waterside shopping centre looking at cute, cuddly toys in one of the card shops. [[Jay Cartwright|Jay]] could not resist calling out to him, and although they both ran away immediately afterwards (thus avoiding any immediate altercations), the pair deliberately dropped a hint about what they saw when Gilbert walked past them the next day at school, by muttering the word "Waterside" at him. Gilbert immediately gave them both a week's worth of after-school detention but ultimately rounded it up to four weeks when they protested. On a side note, this made Neil late for own his birthday party, which was later that very day.

Unlike most British schoolteachers, Mr Gilbert calls the students by their surnames ("McKenzie!"). This was once common in decades past, but today would be considered rude. He takes offence to being called "Phil".