The older teacher in today's college environment may find the generation gap between him and his younger colleagues wider than the one between him and his students. He may have trouble initiating shoptalk with the younger generation of careerists whose dossier is scrutinized annually by multiple pretenure review committees. When it comes to professors, the author writes that not all old wood is dead wood. Teachers do not all wear out at the same age, and some get better with age. The author heard Robert Frost command a college lecture hall when he was well into his 80s. The aisles were packed, and the overflow strained to hear his words from a crackling loudspeaker in the basement.