Gary Becker as Teacher

摘要

To be a good teacher, it is necessary to understand a subject and all of its subtleties. Gary Becker was a superb teacher because he understood economics as well as anyone in the world. I taught with Gary Becker for over 15 years. We taught the introductory course in Price Theory for PhD students at the University of Chicago and, along with Edward (Ted) Snyder, we taught a public policy course for MBA students for roughly a decade. Teaching with Gary was great fun. He loved economics and enjoyed passing that love for the subject on to his students. Gary would teach economics to anyone who would listen and he would even try to teach those who refused to listen. Students in his class had no choice but to listen-they lived in constant fear that they would hear their name next in the dreaded phrase "Mr. Smith or Mrs. Jones or Mr. Murphy what do you think?"