To Inspire

The first time I taught creative writing I took over the class about one month into the semester. I was the replacement teacher, replacing one of the favorite teachers. I’m sure most of the kids in the class were not happy about the bait and switch that had just happened because they were very excited about taking Creative Writing with Mr. Glassman.

I was very excited to teach something I loved so much. I couldn’t wait to impart my wisdom and experience. I wanted to help them fall in love with creative writing too. I wanted them to enjoy writing and experience it as a way of coping with life. If I could do that, then my job would be done. I designed the course around different genres of creative writing, like memoirs and script writing, in order to grow and stretch them and broaden their experiences beyond poetry and short stories.

I had a girl who was an amazingly and hauntingly beautiful poet. However that was all she wanted to write. I tried everything to motivate her and get her interested in writing other things. Nothing worked. Class time disintegrated into her sitting there cutting words out of a newspaper to use for her poems. I remember one day in a meeting with the principal she told me that I just didn’t inspire her.

I stopped to consider whether or not this was actually part of the job description of a creative writing teacher. I remember also asking the question on a forum for teachers. I was surprised when they all said that it was.

It is true that teachers often inspire students. But does this happen accidentally or on purpose? What exactly is it that inspires a student? Does a teacher fail at her job if she fails to inspire her students? How does one go about inspiring students who often don’t even find the inspiration to pick up a pencil?

This felt like a hugely overwhelming task: to be responsible for inspiring each and every student. At the time, I was struggling just to put together lesson plans for a class I had never taught before let alone trying to figure out how to inspire students to be creative. When you add “inspire me” and “wow me every day” to the list, I crumbled.

But honestly I decided that this was largely outside of my job description and here’s why.

My goal in teaching was to help them find their own inspiration, apart from me. I want to send them out into the world taking every moment in and mining it for inspiration. I don’t want them to rely on me for their inspiration because when they leave my room, who will inspire them? What if they go through a season of life and no one is there to inspire them? Are they doomed to live without inspiration because they are not surrounded by inspiring people?

No, my job is infinitely more difficult than simply inspiring them. My job is to equip them to be able to find inspiration wherever they are in the world, even if they are miles away from me.

At the end of Creative Writing this year, one of my students wrote this to me: “Although my previous teachers were fair, none of them have inspired me in such a way as you. Thank you, and continue to inspire students in the future.”

What did I do that was so inspirational? I was passionate about what I was teaching and about helping my students learn, not just material and standards, but about themselves and who they are. I gave them time and space to discover their talents and kind words to encourage them along the way. The passion I bring to my classroom every day shines through and is contagious and consequently inspirational. This requires much more “work” than writing an inspirational lesson because I have to keep finding my own inspiration in the world and mining every moment by being present where I am. I find my own ways to remain passionate about my job. This is what I can model for my students and hopefully we will all be inspired along the way.

So students…what inspires you? Teachers…how do you inspire students? Please leave a comment.

Ode to the Dirt Pile

Congratulations to the Class of 2016! I had the privilege of delivering the “Senior Charge” at Commencement. I had a couple of students ask for the poem, so here it is.

Ode to the Dirt Pile

A concrete garden sat between two buildings

The flagpole marked the center

The circle included everyone

A pit loomed behind of a building long gone

A chain link fence with barbed wire

Blended into the background.

Far from new, but not run down

Not what it was, but not what it could be

We knew it couldn’t stay

We made our memories anyway

Coffeehouse performances

Outdoor classes

Silly dances

The courtyard saw it all.

Let’s re-design it!

Make it new!

And so we came to you

We asked you to start a journey

Not knowing where it would go or how we would get there

Some of you almost didn’t make it,

But in the end the ideas flowed

Were presented

Were heard.

Some outrageous and impossible

Some quite simple and true

All came from the ideas you grew

You didn’t know where it would end

But you came along anyway

The courtyard inspired vision

She held our dreams

Of what could be.

Then the courtyard disappeared

Dug up

Replaced

Discarded

Machines dismantled blocks of concrete

Watching from the window slabs broke in two

Everything shifted

Everything exposed

Chaos ensued

Every day

Something new came out of the pile

Or went onto the pile

Every day was different

Nothing was the same

But the pieces were there

Buried memories unearthed

We were standing watch and waiting

To see what would come

To see what change would bring

A mountain of dirt dusted with snow

Gray metal piles all in a row

Dismantled piles of bricks and lumber and stone.

Where is the place that we knew?

The place where our ideas grew?

Would they survive?

Would we survive?

Would it ever be the way it was?

Would we like the something new?

We knew what it was before

We know what it is now

We may not know what it will become

But we know it will not stay the same

And neither can we

For though we would love to sit and stare

Its time is done.

You have done what you could

You did what we asked you to do

You helped us make something new

You shaped our dreams of what it could become

You will not be forgotten

We will keep watch over the courtyard

And our beloved dirt pile

We will make sure that it doesn’t stay the same

Keep watch over yourselves as you go

Keep growing

Keep changing

Keep being brave

You were the foundation

The beginning of something new

For dirt is always with us

And you will be too

Just in different places.