The teacher

George Schwartz, a science teacher at Forest Hills High School in Long Island, NY, discusses the teacher shortage and the complexity of the profession. Teaching is more than just being well informed because it involves personal relationships. Mr. Schwartz shows how a teacher must be a showman to demonstrate scientific principles in ways students won't anticipate, such as pulling paper from beneath a full beaker of water to prove the rule of inertia. To prove that a teacher's influence affects eternity, Lynn Poole interviews four of Mr. Schwartz's former students: Dr. Richard Lewontin, an assistant professor of genetics at North Carolina State College; a high school senior and budding herpetologist; a third year medical student at Harvard Medical School; and a freshman majoring in biology at Queens College. All praise their former teacher and explain how he had influenced them. Mr. Schwartz lists the requirements of a good teacher: subject knowledge, love of young people, boundless energy, and self-criticism.