To be a teacher is one of the most rewarding experiences in life. Possessing knowledge or skill and genuine enthusiasm for a subject about which someone else wants to learn is a very precious combination. The love of one's field or subject can be contagious. To be absorbed or involved in a truly meaningful intellectual experience provides a higher state of consciousness than is required for everyday existence.

A devoted teacher cares as much about the individual students being taught as about the subject being presented. Keeping in mind a continued effort to establish a two-way flow between the students and the teacher helps to make a satisfying interaction for an hour or more. Once one senses the withdrawal of either partner, the presentation should stop or a renewed approach should be introduced.

Each student has a unique brain with its own personal store of information and abilities. A teacher should try to deal with the individuality and interest of as many students as possible during the course of a class or lecture. In the language of a neurobiologist, a teacher's role is to awaken the thalamic gates to the cerebral cortex—to make that cortex aware of new ideas, directions, and problems to be solved. To learn what is not known is equally important as to learn what is known. Students should learn from the beginning that they too are teachers. One of my basic philosophies is "Each one teach one." I learn as much from my students as I hope they learn from me.