This week, NPR Ed launched a new series called "50 Great Teachers", where they first looked at Socrates and how his teachings are still used in classrooms today. 

An anonymous NPR staffer who calls himself or herself "editor" from NPR Ed suggests that thinking of 50 great teachers is harder than it sounds in an article on WNPR.org. 

"Anne Sullivan was a great teacher," said the poster. "Famously, she was the 'Miracle Worker,' who taught a blind and deaf girl named Helen Keller to understand sign language and, eventually, to read and write."

"Editor" then listed four educators including Socrates, Booker T. Washington, and Jamie Escalante, "who taught calculus to poor kids in Los Angeles when no one really thought they could learn it."

"That's four. After that my list gets pretty sketchy," the editor said. "And yet, if you asked me to, I could [probably] sit here at my desk and write out the names of 50 great generals. Fifty great political leaders? No problem."

With teachers, editor said, "it's not so easy. Google isn't much help, either - you mostly get the names mentioned above, and maybe a few more." However, the NPR Ed editor said that with a little digging, "will spend the next year celebrating great teachers and telling their stories."

"So we'll set out to find 50 of them and tell their stories," editor said. "This won't be some kind of contest to name the best teachers in America. Or a ranking that says this teacher is better than that one...Instead we'll use it to celebrate teachers past and present [mostly present], famous or not. We'll be looking for personal stories about how a teacher can change the lives of students. Or just one student."

Read the full story. 

Article by Kassondra Granata, Education World Contributor