Great Teachers Are Not Solo Performers

By John C. Board

During the three years from 1987 until 1990, I spent considerable time with 117 notable Americans, gleaning from their writings ideas about what makes a great teacher. These individuals have all made extraordinary contributions to their chosen fields as well as to the American culture. In many cases, they had influence throughout the world.

In the solitude of my home, I reflected on the words of these 117 people. I thought of them as my house guests as I searched through their autobiographies. They were poets and musicians, journalists, historians, novelists, biographers, attorneys, theologians, a champion boxer, three Presidents, members of the United States Congress, scientists, a handful of radicals, and a blind and deaf woman. As they revealed how their lives had been shaped, each of them included one or more references to teachers having a significant influence on their lives.

What these outstanding men and women said about their teachers was authentic. They had not been asked to write about them for a specific occasion or a particular publication. Rather, they commented voluntarily on teachers as they reflected on life and wrote their autobiographies. In an autobiography people select and write about persons and events that have been...