On becoming a teacher of teachers

In this article, Robert H. Bell, a professor of English at Williams College for over twenty-five years, reflects on his experiences as both a teacher of undergraduates and a mentor to his junior colleagues. Using a historical lens, he traces the decline of pedagogical training in higher education ov er the course of his own career, and notes the absence of mentoring program s that would encourage senior academics to assist their younger peers in. t he classroom. Having been asked in 1994 to develop such a program in order to provide guidance and support to newly hired - and often untested -facult y members, Bell describes and deliberates about the obstacles and issues ra ised by both its creation and its implementation.