ABSTRACT
Teachers were asked to provide answers to questions about mythic icons, the substance of teacher mythology, and mythic recognition in teaching. Teachers' mythography, like John Dewey's law, says something about how teachers think strategically about their work as teachers. When teachers think about excellence in their profession they already tend to think, even if subliminally, in terms of the universal law of educational energy. Mythogenesis regarding the teaching profession commonly comes from nonteachers. According to the teachers, the heroic teacher creates educational energy in the classroom. The paucity of stories of heroic teachers was compensated in part when the participants discussed the notion of the master teacher. Dewey's law purports to provide the desideratum of teachers' mythography: educational energy. When many teachers become adept at creating educational energy the larger promise of the universal law of educational energy comes into focus.
