High school English teacher Mr. S. was brilliant, demanding, and very, very tough. He was absolutely clear about what he expected of students, and he was uncompromising. After school every day his classroom was at least half full of students rewriting and again rewriting their essays and expository themes until they met his standard for a passing grade.
He taught how to read, how to think about what you read, and how to write: everything from basic grammar to analysis to intelligent discussion to graceful, fluid sentence construction. And he didn’t hold back on opinions, either: if you delivered B.S., he wrote ”Junk” on your paper in heavy, dull pencil, underlined three or four times and sometimes tearing right through the page. I was his top student in my class, and I couldn’t even count how many times I saw ”Junk” written on my papers. It was a cold shock to vanity, but it was also a powerful lesson. The best part was that you could, with sufficient focused effort, turn your junk paper into something he would praise and read aloud before the class.
To this day his teachings are the foundation of my professional career.
)
| asked August 9th, 2008
| 9 responses
| 
Topics:
