Student and Teacher

In recent months I have had a lot of nostalgia for my brief time teaching. I assisted a former student with a literature paper (see Blog Entry “Prince of Denmark”) and one of my students came to New York for the first time in 6 years. He sent me an email on facebook asking if I remembered him, which I thought was very sweet.


I replied saying that, of course, I remembered him (I had friended him on facebook after all which meant I liked him). He told me of his plans to come to New York and that he wanted to see if we could meet up. I was thrilled because he was my favorite student in one class. He told me the dates he would be in the city and we put out tentative plans to meet for lunch.

As the days to his visit got closer, we put together a date and time to meet up. We decided lunch was still easier to do because he wanted to be a tourist and was planning to see downtown. I told him he could do that in between meeting me for lunch.

We decided to meet in front of the NY Stock Exchange. However, I didn’t know if he looked any different because it had been 6 years and he was 18 the last time I saw him. He did in fact look different but I still recognized him. We went to lunch and he told me that he’s now working for a company after getting his Master’s in Sociology. He told me about his thesis and what he had been up to in the past 6 years. I told him that shortly after teaching him I returned to work in the bank. I explained what I do and that I had recently had a baby.

He then told me that he was always very thankful that I forced him to stay in my class. I was teaching advanced conversation and he was very quiet but I could see from his expressions that he understood everything I was saying. His homework was the best of everyone in his class – always showing me that he grasped grammar than even native speakers didn’t always understand. The only problem was that he didn’t talk very much – a problem that I completely understood because I often found myself in the same situation. One day he approached me after class and asked me if he should go to a level lower. In order to do so, he would need my permission. I spoke frankly with him and said that he demonstrated excellent understanding of English grammar in his writing. He had no problem keeping up with my normally fast pace of speaking and seemed to understand the meaning of vocabulary I was using based on the context. I said that he seemed to me one of the best students in the class. I said I wouldn’t allow him to move to a lower level. I thought it best for him to stick with the class. I insisted that he had to make an effort to talk because it was in fact advanced conversation. I told him that I would call on him at least once in class if he didn’t volunteer to speak. I think this scared him so the next day he offered to give his opinion to a topic we were discussing.

The next few weeks he made even bigger leaps and bounds in his English because he became far more comfortable speaking. Aside from his slight accent and his natural tendency to speak in a quiet manner, he gave great presentations on topics assigned. He eased up when we played quick thinking games and generally seemed more relaxed in class. When he left the class, I was sad because he was such a thoughtful and respectful student. But I was happy he stayed in touch and it was very nice to see him, especially since he made the effort to see me. It was touching. I miss those connections and knowing that you are making a difference in another person’s life. I can’t say that I feel that influence in what I do now-a-days.

The Prince of Denmark

While I was on maternity leave, one of my students came to visit me and my daughter. In discussing what she was up to, she mentioned that she was taking a literature class. Of course this piqued my interest. I asked her what she was reading and what else was on the syllabus. She mentioned that she would have to read Hamlet and write a paper on it. I was hooked. I told her that I’d be glad to read her paper and help her out.


A few weeks later she took me up on my offer. She sent me a text asking me if she could send me a draft. I told her to send away as well as when it was due and what the assignment asked. She said she needed to write about what made Hamlet a complex character.

As I read her paper I was carried away into the world of the play. Although Hamlet is not my favorite Shakespeare play, I have read it enough to know it very well. I immediately recalled scenes and soliloquies as if I were reading the play right then. My student decided to propose that Hamlet goes crazy in the course of the play and that’s what makes him complex and vice versa. Regardless of my thoughts on that, I found her arguments very compelling.

I sent back my comments and grammar corrections along with specific lines and acts that she should look at and delve into. Mainly I told her to focus on building upon a comment she made about how Hamlet is a misogynist. She made a comment about Gertrude and brushed it off when it came to Ophelia. Additionally I told her to look at the scene where Hamlet stages a play and to use that as proof that he was conniving and methodical. She sketched that whole scene out and built on it tremendously. However I thought that if she spent more time on the paper and developed it further, she’d have an even greater case in proving he was crazy.

Her next draft came a few days later and I thought it was much improved. I would have given her an A minus for such a paper. I didn’t tell her that but I did see a lot of improvement from the first draft. I told her if she had more time to work on it, there were certain other things she could develop and flush out. Unfortunately she didn’t have more time.

She got a B+ from her teacher. She was happy-ish with the result. She thought it was a better paper based on my feedback and her changes. The reason she didn’t get a better grade was because her professor didn’t think that Hamlet was crazy. I told her that regardless of whether the professor believed it or not, she did an amazing job convincing the reader that he was a complex character who goes insane, which is the point of the paper. I thought she deserved better. I mentioned that grading is subjective and that one professor might give a paper a B+ where another teacher may give the same paper an A. It all depended on the luck of the drawer when it came to professors.

After that brief interlude with the Prince of Denmark, I wanted to revisit all my favorite Shakespeare plays. I haven’t done it yet but I always find something in them that I didn’t see before or an aspect that applies to contemporary life. I know the Bard is annoying or boring for most people but I find him to be chock full of great discussions points and amazing characters. Alas dear reader, I place the plays back on my shelf for the time being. Perhaps the next time I revisit Hamlet or Romeo or Julius Caesar, I will read them with my little munchkin.