Albert Einstein is known for his extraordinary work in quantum physics. Winston Churchill was a great orator. Daniel Day-Lewis is a great actor. Michael Jordan was one of the greatest athletes of all time. And Frank Sinatra was clearly known as a great vocalist.
And, if asked, all of us could name other famous scientists, actors, public speakers, and athletes. There’s Stephen Hawking, Marie Curie, Jonas Salk, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter, Tony Bennett and Barbra Streisand. All great. All well known.
But can any of us name a famous professor? And not a pretend professor in a film script, but an honest-to-gosh college professor renowned for his/her skill as a college professor. Is there anyone to model ourselves after?
Now, of course there is Randy Pausch, a computer science professor who gained notoriety by publishing a last lecture before his death from cancer.
And there’s Tony Morrison (famous author), Lawrence Lessig (pundit on political corruption), John Forbes Nash (a mathematical genius and schizophrenic), Noam Chomsky (linguistics professor well known as a political dissident). But none of these university teachers, save perhaps John Nash, are distinguished for their professorial techniques or their abilities that can be modeled by anyone who wants to be an excellent professor.
Most of us do have professors that we had in school or those we watched in our early jobs who we modeled our own teaching after. But only we knew them. There were not books about them, chapters in books about them, articles about their teaching expertise, or discussion at conferences about the reasons for their prominence.
But if you take time to look, there are articles by professors about teaching and research, and skills and tips. And there are a few annual listings of best college professors in various fields.
And maybe that’s enough.
Or maybe it’s not.
After all, professors are not like plumbers or web designers or accountants or surgeons who have no lists of the best. We’re more like artists and political figures and chefs…all of whom do have who’s who lists that most of us can recognize.
Is it time for a compilation? Is it time for names?
Just food for thought.
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