-^-for posterity-^-

i have taught the fourth year students now for a year and a half. we have had three different literature courses and everyone learned in droves especially myself.

we worked on everything from chaucer to kerouac, from gilgamesh to milton, from the iliad to vonnegut and we ended with a thorough study of 'the great gatsby.' this morning we had our last class and it was, for some of us, a tearful farewell.

the fourth year class is separated into three groups of around 35 students. i remember the first time i walked into the classroom with my home-made curriculum. that semester was an introduction to english literature and i was told to teach from chaucer to the present in under 30 periods. i choose twelve different books that i thought were substantial and we went over the basics. i taught them to understand literature from the perspective of the author by understanding the history of the time. i was nervous and explained plots in long, drawn out detail. we argued about the ideas and came up with our own 'themes'. it was wonderful.

the second english lit class was spring of last semester. that class was in conjunction with a humanities class held at bluffton college and we frequently wrote back and forth about the ideas that various authors were discussing. things like, 'what does justice mean for 'the oresteia'? the class was substantially more organized and difficult.

the last class was not necessarily scheduled well and was held in a large lecture hall where i got to pretend i was someone spectacular and important and i used a microphone. we went through every page, every conversation and every detail of 'the great gatsby'. today was our review.

i stood in front of everyone feeling supremely comfortable. i joked and they laughed. i answered questions and got emotional and sometimes took the place of the characters in the book. one student stood up and asked if they needed to be an actor to be a good teacher. i smiled.

at the end of class i gave a heartfelt speech and told them all that i learned so much from them and they i was honored to have taught them. i talked for a bit and, at one point, felt a little lump brimming up in my throat. i couldn't cry so i stopped and class was over. i stood at the door as 104 of the students milled out all smiling to me and telling me that they would miss me.