Some teachers leave marks on report cards, and some leave marks on a country. The people in this list helped shape more than classrooms. They influenced values, science, literature, civil rights, public life, and the way Americans think about learning itself. A few were traditional classroom educators; others were mentors, reformers, school builders, or public intellectuals, but all of them taught in ways that lasted well beyond one semester. Their methods were not the same; their eras were very different, and their students ranged from schoolchildren to entire generations, yet each one helped prove that teaching can be one of the most powerful forces in national life.
#1: Anne Sullivan
Perseverance is the word most often attached to Anne Sullivan, and it fits because her work with Helen Keller became one of the most admired teaching stories in American history. Born in Massachusetts in 1866 and educated at Perkins Institution for the Blind, Sullivan arrived in Alabama in 1887 to teach a child who was both blind and deaf after an illness in infancy, and she used touch, discipline, repetition, and enormous patience to help Helen Keller connect words to the world around her. The famous breakthrough at the water pump has become part of national memory, but what mattered even more was what followed: years of demanding instruction that helped Keller read, write, speak, and eventually graduate from college.
