The Chance to Create (Week 4)

My Sophomore year of high school was my worst and best year for English. I started out the year in full I.B. (International Baccalaureate) classes, and this included English. I had always done well in my English classes before this year, but, to be honest, I struggled first semester in English. IB is a high honors program, and though the material was college-level and, therefore, challenging, it wasn't the course work that discouraged me- it was my teacher. I won't name names, because I went to high school right down the street from CSUSB, but this particular English teacher was absolutely horrendous. He was older and had a reputation for acting inappropriately with his female students. I won't go into detail, because it is unnecessary for this assignment, but his, ahem, style didn't exactly inspire me to take his assignments seriously.

After discussing my intimidation of him with my father, my dad decided it was time for me to switch out of his class at the semester. For the first time in my high school career, I was no longer in full IB classes. My dad asked to have me transferred into the AVID program at my school after I told him about it (a few of my friends in P.E. were in the program and told me I should join). I was ecstatic to be transferred out of this teacher's class, but was a little hesitant when I realized that my new English teacher was a man, too. I really didn't need to worry, however. Mr. Garrett was probably the complete opposite of my previous teacher. He was younger, very outgoing and most importantly, he was warm and he took his students seriously. To be honest, for the first time in high school, I felt as though what I thought and what I said was respected and heard by a teacher.

The assignment that I remember best from all of high school was given to me that second semester. We read Ayn Rand's Anthem , which isn't exactly an easy read, but it was short so I wasn't turned off to it. We, of course, answered chapter questions to make sure that we understood the readings, but the assignment I'm talking about came at the end of the book. Mr. Garrett gave us a few (and by a few, I mean probably 10) final assignments to choose from, ranging from research papers to creative writing projects. I narrowed my choices down to two, one being an academic paper and the other being creative writing. I'm not sure what provoked my courage, but I decided to go with the creative writing project. The question was to write the story of the man Equality 7-2521 (the main character) saw being burned at a stake at the beginning of the book. I don't know what it was, but the combination between this book, the writing prompt and Mr. Garrett encouraged me to write a story for a grade, which was something I had never done before.

When I got my assignment back from Mr. Garrett, I was only encouraged further. I got an A+ on the assignment, and he wrote comments giving me helpful tips and praise. For the first time in high school, I felt talented and intelligent. He was the only teacher I had in high school who did anything remotely creative with writing assignments, and I attribute my success in his class to his patience and belief in his students. It was after his class that I considered seriously going into creative writing in college, and as those of you reading probably know by now, I did. The experience I had in his class also has given me ideas about how I want to give writing assignments to my future students. Because of his class, I know the importance of giving students room to be everything they can, even when that means going above and beyond what I might be expected to do as a teacher (as Mr. Garrett did). Because of this class, I know the importance of giving students a chance to create something they are proud of.