When I was in the 8th grade we started to tackle LITERATURE.
My English teacher at the time was a great and by the time we had finished reading books like War and Peace and Romeo and Juliet and A Tale of Two Cities we had actually learned something. A few of us actually loved those books enough to take on other books that we probably wouldn’t have read until High School or even College.
At the end of each unit we were tested and I loved the Essay part- we got to free write about what we had just read.
You could pick up a lot of extra points if you completed that section.
I wrote in part: Everybody DIES it’s worse then Salems Lot by Stephen King. I’m glad Romeo and Juliet didn’t have a dog because Shakespeare probably would have killed it too.
I went on to say I liked Shakespeare because he was like Stephen King .
Now days when I get dragged off to an Arts In The Park type of a thing I remember my teacher handing back our test papers and before he handed me back mine he asked,
” Do you really feel that Mr, King and Mr. Shakespeare had a lot in common Miss Godfrey? “
” Yes. I told you. They saw monsters in everyone. They saw them everywhere. But Shakespeare made it sound pretty.”
My teacher tossed my paper on my desk.
I got an A.
Hoozah.
Good for your teacher and good for you! http://judydykstrabrown.com/2015/09/05/crushed/
Wow, this is an interesting post Anita. I really enjoyed reading it.
I didn’t read any King or Shakespeare in school. In fact I haven’t read them yet. I have watched many films adapted from novels of Mr. King and liked them too. Dolores Claiborne is best among them 🙂
The stripe in this article is superb.
Thanks for sharing.
Best Wishes,
Anand 🙂
Thank you Anand! I was very lucky, because I was writing so much through school I seemed to get placed in great English classes with a strong emphasis on Literature and writing. I still love to read ‘the classics’ Dickens is my favorite and M.R. James
I look forward to learn from you Anita. Thank you. 🙂
My favorite teacher in high school, in fact one of my top five favorite teachers at anytime, was my 11th grade English teacher. She let me write a research paper for my final project on Star Trek. And I got an A, She turned me on to writing and I have been at it ever since. You rock, Mrs. Fairbanks, wherever you are.