Teacher of the Year

Vernon Burton is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Vernon Burton is Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Education is revered as the essence of a society's promise to its youth. But what is a good education and who is a good educator? A special awards ceremony in Washington DC provided strong answers to both questions. Vernon Burton – one of the four Professors of the Year – describes the passion for critical thinking he seeks to inspire in students and its importance to society.