Discussion Question: Did your teachers encourage you to write?
Have you ever had a teacher who really encouraged you to write? What did she/he do to influence your writing?
Please discuss your responses to this question in the comments. Is there something you’ve always wanted to ask your fellow writers? Email your discussion question suggestions to twentysomethingwriters[at]gmail[dot]com.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:30 am
Only when they tried in vain to get me to do my homework.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:42 am
My senior honors/AP English teacher, Mrs. Augustyn, encouraged me to write. She praised my writing and told me if I wanted to teach high school, she would find a place for me. Years later, after I would have thought that she had long forgotten me, she called my parents’ house and asked about me, and told them she had a teaching position open. I didn’t become an English teacher–I became a writer.
May 13th, 2009 at 6:49 am
I can’t really remember a teacher encouraging me to write (other than for class assignments).
May 13th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Hmm.. There one was teacher -Val Cazier – in AP US History in High School, that if she really really liked what you had said in your essay, she would quote what you said, and then put your name next to it, on the board. For all the world to see. I really liked having my name on the board. I acted all humble, and like it was embarrassing, but it made me feel like I really could put words together, where maybe, just maybe someone might enjoy reading them.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:05 am
The only teacher that ever encouraged me to write was my English/Creative Writing teacher. She was always so positive, so reassuring, and she found a way to teach with every day happenings as examples. She was amazing.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:49 am
The teacher that encouraged me to write the most was my professor the second semester of freshman year. He always took the time to show me what he actually liked about the paper, before pointing out mistakes. After his class, I felt much more confident in my own writing, and actually enjoyed writing for itself. (I hope a college professor counts, because I don’t think teachers at my high school encouraged much of anything…)
May 14th, 2009 at 5:05 am
Isn’t that the truth? (We went to the same high school.) Though I had great English teachers throughout high school, I’m not sure they encouraged me to write often (unless, like I said before, it was something for an assignment).
May 13th, 2009 at 10:25 am
I can honestly say I didn’t give a rat’s butt about writing until I was put in a Creative Writing class during my senior year in high school because no other classes were open. I thought, great, just what I want… a writing class. But that class is what shot my writing career into motion. I was Editor in Chief of the Literary Magazine that year. I loved my teacher and she loved me. She gave me a notebook, which I still have, encouraging me to continue writing. I’ve often wanted to contact her and thank her. I should do that sometime soon…
May 13th, 2009 at 10:57 am
I had an English teacher in Highschool, Miss Davis, who praised my work on paper, but never in person. Her words always made me feel good, but I was never given the encouragement to do anything more with it. I personally feel that there are very few teachers who guide students and inspire them to do, and be more. This is why I would love to be a lecturer one day. My subject of choice won’t be literature or creative writing, but I think as a teacher it is your duty to encourage students who are really great to be active about their dreams, and even when they are unsure to challenged them into finding their true passion in life.
May 18th, 2009 at 11:34 am
My eighth grade language arts teacher. She would give us these huge writing assignments- read half of a mystery novel and then have us write the ending. She would always read my stories out to the class. Never in a… show offy way, she didn’t tell the class it was my work she was reading, but I knew it was my work. And sitting there surrounded by my classmates who would say how cool the story was after and knowing that it was mine? Best feeling ever.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
I acutally didn’t have a teacher that pushed me to write or encouraged me to be a better writer. I just kind of came into my own in college, and wrote throughout (stuff that was never submitted for assignments).