Dear
Friends
Colleagues:
&
FROM THE EDITOR
Welcome to the Ides of March! I had not thought about the Ides of March in recent years until I heard someone talking about it in the wee hours of the morning at my gym. The Ides of March was a time of reckoning for the Romans—a day for religious commemoration and a deadline to settle their debts.
The Ides of March was a pivotal day in the Shakespearean play Julius Caesar. A soothsayer had warned Julius Caesar that his life was in danger and, in particular, he should be careful on the Ides of March. Even with these words of warning, amid a time of great political unrest, where there was grave concern that Caesar was trying to usurp the republic to make himself King, he walked unarmed into the Amphitheatre.
The memory of Julius Caesar prompts us to explore genuine leadership and where it is found. Due to recent events we have seen great leadership among our cherished teachers and students. Some of our writers and contributors share stories about their teachers, and what it means to be a great teacher. U.S Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor said it best, “One professor can make a world of difference in the life of a student.”
This month, our cover features former Stanford Professor Dr. Peter Corning, an evolutionary biologist and a gifted writer and speaker who takes us on a guided tour of the history of life on Earth. Does our species have a future? The answer can be found in synergy. His latest book, Synergistic Selection: How Cooperation Has Shaped Evolution and the Rise of Humankind, will be released on Thursday, March 15, 2018.
–Patricia Vaccarino