In this article, Robert H. Bell, a professor of English at Williams College for over twenty-five years, reflects on his experiences as both a teacher of undergraduates and a mentor to his junior colleagues. Using a historical lens, he traces the decline of pedagogical training in higher education over the course of his own career, and notes the absence of mentoring programs that would encourage senior academics to assist their younger peers in the classroom. Having been asked in 1994 to develop such a program in order to provide guidance and support to newly hired — and often untested — faculty members, Bell describes and deliberates about the obstacles and issues raised by both its creation and its implementation.

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