Best Should Teach Initiative
The Best Should Teach Initiative strives to acknowledge excellence in teaching and academic leadership. The initiative is managed by the Graduate Teacher Program in coordination with the School of Education, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Graduate School at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Lindley and Marguerite Stiles established the initiative in 1996 to promulgate the message that “The Best Should Teach.”
A Best Should Teach sculpture designed by John Haertling which represents the flame of enlightenment is installed at the School of Education on the 
University of Colorado at Boulder campus as a visual reminder of the initiative and of the importance of teaching.
Each year at the Best Should Teach event, faculty from the Boulder campus who exemplify exceptional teaching, educational leadership, and service receive the Best Should Teach Gold Award. Additionally, graduate students who demonstrate outstanding teaching, educational leadership, and service receive the Best Should Teach Silver Award.
The School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder supports the Best Should Teach Initiative by recognizing an outstanding undergraduate in Education each year. The student receives a Best Should Teach Flame of Enlightenment pin and plaque at graduation. At the Best Should Teach should Teach Ira & Ineva Baldwin Lecture each year, the School of Education also awards gold Best Should Teach pins to several teachers from the local public schools.
2012 Best Should Teach Gold Awards
Professor of Literacy and Learning Sciences, holds the Inaugural Provost's Chair in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her doctorate in English and Education from CU Boulder in 1987.
College Professor of Distinction, holds a joint appointment in Philosophy and in the Women and Gender Studies Program at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Professor of Film Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, earned his doctorate in English and Film from Claremont Graduate School.
Professor of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado Boulder, earned his doctorate in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1991.