Academic Contract

Whether you choose to accept it or not, you have entered an academic contract where you will have a give and take relationship with professors. Some may offer you quite a bit and never ask for anything in return. In other instances, you may have to help them with projects for meager short-term returns. In any case, professors may require much from you, they will use you for leg work, a fresh perspective, as well as having an ally amongst their ultimate judges: your fellow students.

In fact, many great teachers are remembered because of their students. For example, most of what we know about Socrates is through the work of his famous student, Plato. The ascension of Socrates as a Great Thinker marked the Golden Age of Greece. When Socrates was forced to drink hemlock and take his own life, Plato left Greece for over a decade and returned to establish The Academy, a school that operated for about 900 years.

In turn, Plato had a student who was none other than the great Aristotle. His views laid the foundation for the Western thought that permeated across the globe until the 17th century.

Subsequently, Aristotle became Alexander The Great's tutor. Alexander's father, Phillip of Macedon, ended the Golden Age of Greece when he united the Greek City-States to create the Greek Empire.