[About halfway
through the Spring 2025 semester, I
lost my Dad. While that was of course the semester’s most defining moment,
it also allowed me to reflect for the remaining weeks on my own teaching in
relationship to one of the most dedicated and talented teachers I’ve ever
known. So for this semester reflections series, I want to highlight one moment
from each class where I’d say I particularly felt my Dad’s presence.]
We lost my
Dad on a Sunday morning; on Monday morning, I taught two American Literature
courses over Google Meet. I hope that doesn’t seem insensitive or unfeeling; I
assure you it was quite the opposite, not least because I was teaching at my
Dad’s desk in his study, with his books and papers and so much else of his
amazing career and life around me. In Major American we were beginning our second
week with Langston Hughes, and discussing in particular his stunning book-length
poem/collection “Montage of a
Dream Deferred” (1951). At the heart of that collection, in its literal
center but also I would argue its philosophical core, is “Theme
for English B,” one of Hughes’s most explicitly autobiographical poems and
a text focused on an English classroom and assignment. As we talked about “Theme”
during that class, and especially as I reflected for a bit on the limits and
the possibilities of teaching and writing alike before we move to another focal
text, I certainly felt like my Dad, a lifelong writer and teacher and critical
optimist about all things literary, was there in the conversation with us.
Next reflection
tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Spring
semester reflections you’d share?
