Jessica Rosevear

My spirits were lifted yesterday while reading an article about Curtis Sittenfeld, bestselling author of novels Prep, The Man of My Dreams, and American Wife.  Sittenfeld was teaching high school English part time when she wrote Prep (or at least for part of the time).  She brought her galley proofs into the high school to show her students when Prep was in production, and joked with them that if her book became a bestseller, she would buy the whole class pizza.  Later, commenting on her own book jacket photo in a New York Times essay, Sittenfeld said her author photo, typically a chance for a writer to look alluring with pensive, smoky eyes, was not so much “Come hither” as it was “Ninth graders, your Macbeth papers are due on Monday.”

How inspiring that someone out there was a huge literary success while continuing to inspire students every day.   I’m not sure if Sittenfeld continued teaching after the runaway success of Prep, but think about how much she could bring to her students should she continue to do so, being a superstar in the publishing world.

My own students fuel my energy to write, either in their own passions for writing or in the way they approach literature.  One of my classes is wrapping up a unit on Oedipus Rex and Antigone.  For most adults, the plots to these Greek tragedies are pretty basic, no questioning required.  But my students are inquisitive.  They press to know why it takes Oedipus so long to find out the truth, why he would kill anyone at all in his lifetime if he was trying to avoid a prophecy involving murder.  Their questions often inspire me to think in new ways, to ponder  possibilities never before considered.

Teaching affords the opportunity to engage with students in discovery every single day.  It can be hard, exhausting, and some days I wake up praying that my alarm clock is really someone calling to say it’s a snow day.  But those moments when I see a student excited about a book, angry at the choice a character makes, connecting literature to life, growing as a critical thinker, engaging in the art of debate, tackling revision… these moments make me happy and proud to be part of this profession.

“The teacher is one who made two ideas grow where only one grew before.” ~Elbert Hubbard