In many societies, teachers are tradesmen like any other. Highly skilled teachers can have their own guilds (“university” is originally another name for “guild;” only later does it apply specifically to schools). Professors are distinct from other teachers in that they teach near-adults who have already gained a basic grounding in literacy and perhaps mathematics, rhetoric and theology. GURPS skills of self-expression. Physical and social sciences and humanities do not exist as separate disciplines, but a scholar may end up with any academic skill as a result of his studies.