Teachers are a central figure in our lives, if only because almost all of us have had direct experience with quite a number of them. Americans are a highly diverse group of people, but our memories of teachers serve as something that we have in common, an all too rare and good thing these divisive days. While most of the teachers we’ve had were forgettable, there are those who, decades later, still pop up in our dreams, and not in a good way. (I really did lose my homework on the way to school, Mrs. Pallidino.)

But then there were likely one or two, maybe three if you were really lucky, who had a deep and positive impact on your life at the time. Events in one’s youth can have a profound effect on who one becomes as an adult, many agree, making the potential influence of teachers critical in the trajectory of life. We tend to underestimate this phenomenon, focusing instead on our relationships with parents and siblings when looking back on our personal and psychological evolution, which is just one reason why teachers have not been given the credit that is due to them.

There is much anecdotal evidence suggesting that teachers not only help students prepare for their careers but can make a lasting imprint on their minds and personalities. As I show in my book The........

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