My 2 cents on great teachers... I only had a few. Perhaps 2 in high school. Another 2 in undergrad. And perhaps 6 or 7 in grad school. My observation on th

My 2 cents on great teachers... I only had a few. Perhaps 2 in high school. Another 2 in undergrad. And perhaps 6 or 7 in grad school. My observation on them is consistent with what the article conveyed. 1 - They knew exactly how much a top student was capable of, and kept the bar at the top of that range. No higher, and definitely no lower. 2 - They were passionate masters of the material. They were teachers, who covered computer science and biology. They were biologists and computer scientists who taught. (And economists, etc) 3 - They taught the same classes over and over. (Like the conductor) This was perhaps enabled by 2, and allowed them to know 1. 4 - They weren't afraid to give bad grades. 5 - They prepared you both for the exam (AP, final, or whatever) and to think deeply. It wasn't (Content OR Reasoning), it was (Content AND Reasoning). Teachers like this are few and far between. I will define great as "People who I thank later for the lasting impact of what I learned from them."