A TIME cover story can be done -- on a "crash" basis -- reported, written and edited in a matter of days -- or it may require long gestation. This week's story, built around ten great U.S. teachers, is an example of the second category. "To Profess with a Passion" has been in progress for one year. Last May Associate Editor Ed Magnuson (Minnesota, '50, magna cum laude) and Senior Editor William Forbis (Montana, '39, cum laude) went their separate ways visiting campuses and sitting in on lectures across the U.S. to learn what was afoot in the college classroom.

What was afoot, it turned out, was a TIME cover, but there was much homework to be done. Writer Magnuson monitored more college classes in the East and Middle West, and early in the year the news bureaus were asked to scout the campuses in their areas and search out top teachers. In what is probably a journalistic exercise without precedent, scores of TIME reporters went back to school.

Nominations poured in, not only from the bureaus but also from writers and editors in the New York office, each making a case for his favorite. Magnuson found himself with 150 candidates. This list was painfully pared down to 74 and inscribed on a wall chart that showed the nominee's name, age, college, subject taught, teaching style, and the name of the correspondent who had attended his class. Then, thanks to the guidance of faculty deans, foundation experts, specialists from the U.S. Office of Education and students, the list was halved to 37, and finally reduced to the ten shown on the cover.

Now began the second phase of the reporting job. Correspondents went back to TIME'S ten, interviewed them again, and revisited their classes. These files and the earlier ones provided the working material for Magnuson, Forbis and Researcher Jane Pett (Pembroke, '61).

Higher education in the U.S., as the story shows, is clearly in trouble, but great teachers still find ways of bringing light and life into academe. What makes a great teacher--the magical gift that establishes a link with young minds--is more easily described than defined. Says Magnuson of our cover choices: "Any selection of this sort has to be somewhat arbitrary since there are so many good ones. The ten are models, but we could have listed many more."

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