teachingwithbill

[teachingwithbill]

June 13, 1992

Dear Friend,

School is out. My first year is done. My classes wrapped up nicely. I can’t complain about my students. They all improved. It’d pedantic and cliché, but my students taught me as much as I taught them. If not more.

Charlie came to my apartment for lunch. I figured why not. The kid is phenomenal. Talented and smart. Great things lay ahead for him. He has the rest of high school to figure himself out. That’s what college is for anyway. Now is time for him to mess up. Make friends.

           He asked me about my book collection for half an hour. And Stella and I cooked lunch. I think it was good for Charlie to meet her. He learned about vegetarianism. We made some spaghetti from Moosewood cookbook. And Charlie got a kick out of the imitation bacon bits we put in the salad. I don’t think he’d ever had a vegetarian meal before. Not intentionally at least. I’m sure he’s accidentally had a vegetarian meal.

           I got sentimental at lunch. I don’t think I’ll be heading to New York this fall. I think I will be staying right here.

[teachingwithbill]

June 12, 1992

Dear Friend,

School was a joke today. In that we had no school. But the students still sat in their desks. I still gathered books I’d lent out. The pageantry of school continued uninterrupted. But nothing happened.

[teachingwithbill]

June 10, 1992

And I’m proctoring exams today. The real double-whammy. Prom seemed lovely. I wouldn’t exactly know as I spent most of it re-reading The Fountainhead. Experiencing it as Charlie would say.

           Stella made pad thai from scratch for dinner last night. God, I love her.

[teachingwithbill]

June 9, 1992

It’s prom and I’m chaperoning. Need I say more?

[teachingwithbill]

June 2, 1992

Dear Friend,

It was just Senior Prank. God, I forgot that was a thing. We had the longest faculty meeting. All because a couple seniors filled the pool with Kool-Aid. I guess it created a mess. It did create a mess. But you have to give it to them, it was funny.

           Charlie described reading The Fountainhead as an experience. I think I know what he means. Though, usually I don’t know exactly what he means. He has a unique perspective on books, on school, on everything. I’ve never met anyone like him.

[teachingwithbill]

May 21, 1992

Dear Friend,

I’ve been feeling sentimental lately. My first year of teaching is coming to an end. A full year of grading and answering questions my students could’ve solved on their own. I’ve assigned Charlie The Stranger. Everyone should read Campus. Everyone should read Campus especially when they’re young and unsure and insecure. And I look forward to seeing what Charlie has to say about the book.

           It’ll challenge him. But that’s good.

           He still has that lonely tint he’s carried all year, although it’s softened. This book helped me when I was down. I re-read it recently. Over Easter break.

           The seniors are practically done. They just have a few more weeks to go. Things change fast in high school. I can tell social dynamics are shifting, are fluid.

[teachingwithbill]

May 20, 1992

Dear Friend,

Today Charlie told me I forget that he’s just sixteen. I suppose that’s true.

[teachingwithbill]

May 3, 1992

Dear Friend,

The plan had always been to move to New York after a year of teaching.

[teachingwithbill]

April 29, 1992

Spring break is over. But my students are still spacey.

[teachingwithbill]

April 20, 1992

Dear Friend,

Charlie seems sad. I know it’s none of my business. But I can’t help but notice, I can’t help but care.

[teachingwithbill]

April 18, 1992

Dear Friend,

I had to give Charlie something creative so I chose Hamlet. I don’t know if he’s read a play before. I hope he has. But if he hasn’t, Hamlet is an excellent place to start. It’s Easter break and the Scottish play is short. I want him to have fun this break. I want him to put himself out there. Speak up for once. I hope he does and I hope he enjoys the book.

[teachingwithbill]

March 28, 1992

It’s warming up here. Stella and I went to Philly for the weekend. We walked a lot. It was good to get out. I’m sill thinking about Charlie’s Walden essay. Spending two years outside by a lake and writing sounds awfully appealing right now.

[teachingwithbill]

February 8, 1992

Dear Friend,

It’s the Sadie Hawkins dance and my students won’t shut up about it.

[teachingwithbill]

February 5, 1992

Dear Friend,

Charlie’s gone fully creative on me. I had him read Walden and he wrote his own version as if he was living by a lake for two years. He sustained a new voice throughout the piece and balanced his prose with specific detail and effective sentence structure and diction. Again, I was impressed.

[teachingwithbill]

February 2, 1992

Dear Friend,

Charlie and I ended up talking during lunch break. He should’ve been with his friends and I should’ve been grading. But I think it was good we talked. I told him about Brown and Teach for America and why I care about teaching. All the basic stuff. The important stuff. He was particularly interested to hear about my travels around Europe.

           I left him with Naked Lunch. I’m excited to hear his opinion on it. I myself haven’t read it in a while. Not since undergrad. I look forward to his essay, I look forward to recalling the book through youthful eyes. It was an impulsive choice, giving it to him.

[teachingwithbill]

February 1, 1992

Dear Friend,

The plan has always been to move to New York after a year of teaching. I miss the theater. I miss writing for the theater. What I miss about grad school is having a tightknit community. Theater feels the same way.

           In a way, my meetings with Charlie feel like a form of that. We connect. I connect with other students too, but it’s particularly noteworthy with Charlie. It makes me excited for my other students too.

[teachingwithbill]

January 14, 1992

Dear Friend,

There’s a natural post-Christmas slump. My students seemed detached today. But Charlie was bright with interest. He read The Catcher in the Rye over break. I guess his mom gave him a copy for Christmas. I’m delighted by this, of course. He read it three times, in fact. He told me twice.

           He wrote an essay on the book all on his own. No prompting. It was his best essay yet. It was original and creative and thoughtful. I could tell he’s allowing himself to form connections with the text.

           I wonder what I should assign him next. Something new. Something he wouldn’t have encountered before. I want him to get lost in a book. To get back into reading for the pleasure it brings. Which is why I’ve given him my copy of On the Road. Kerouac is important. Influential. I’m not asking him to write an essay on the book, I couldn’t. Him savoring the text will be enough.