The Miracle of Teaching and Its Positive Effects in Unexpected Ways
Raise your hand if you thought ancient Greek mythology would be a hot cultural topic this summer. I certainly didn’t, but I have watched with great interest and some amusement as that phenomenon has occurred. Initially, the movie version of Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey became both a box office hit (well worth seeing if you haven’t) and a source of debate and controversy. Then the filmed version of the Broadway musical Hadestown, which is based of the combined Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice and Hades and Persephone, became the most watched film version of a musical to date (also well worth a watch is you like musicals)—even more than Hamilton. And recently, the Missoula Children’s Theater staged a junior version of the famous Greek myth of Hercules to the delight, I’m sure, of many young actors and their families and friends.
Why did I have this great interest? Because I had studied these ancient Greek stories and more in some depth as an eighth grader in Ms. Darnel’s English class, and remembered story incidents, themes and modern applications of each of these ancient tales. Keep in mind, this part of my education occurred in a very small town in rural Nebraska in the late 60’s. Ms. Darnel's remarkable plan was to take an entire semester to immerse us uninformed eight graders in ancient Greek mythology in interesting and creative ways, from writing essays about our favorite stories to creating crude comics to illustrate those stories. At the time, I thought this was an incredible waste of time and effort but plowed through it anyway. But Ms. Darnel was very good at taking these ancient tales and translating them for us into current events and cultural goings on (there was a lot of that in the 60s). And the lessons I learned through that incredible experience that semester stuck with me.
Later in college, Greek mythology came up every now and then in college English and American literature classes or art and music lectures or performances (I was an arts nerd), and I had the satisfaction of knowing more about the Greek stories and their meaning than my other classmates. I frequently sent up thanks to Ms. Darnel as I enjoyed this advantage. I had that same satisfaction this summer as news articles, You Tube videos and other media delved into these newly unearthed Greek stories - of course I knew the basic story structure of Homer’s epic poem and could join right into the discussion, all because of Ms. Darnel.
What does this have to do with Writing Coaches of Montana? Ms. Darnel would be very upset that it took me this long to get to my main point, which is to illustrate the miracle of teaching and its positive effects in unexpected ways long after the act of teaching is done. My experience with volunteering for Writing Coaches has been one of the truly rewarding parts of my life during the past three years as I have met many wonderful, caring and thoughtful teachers who have invited us in, as well as getting to observe many of my fellow volunteers do amazing work with students in that valuable one-on-one setting that is at the heart of this incredible program. I am certain that our combined efforts will have beneficial effects on the students we serve well into the future, as they go forth and make their contributions to the world and their communities and families. My experience with Ms. Darnel and many other dedicated and terrific teachers and professors, and the continued effects on me from those efforts, give me that confidence.
So, I salute all of you who are reading this and working with the Writing Coaches program. It is a true joy to interact and observe all of you as we work with our most precious resource—students who are working hard, in one form or another, to learn and grow as they move forward in school and life.
Finally, I think that teaching writing skills is a particularly valuable thing to teach and coach during a time of increased verbal communication. Writing allows a student to think through issues and topics over time with thoughtful revisions, and that is a very valuable thing to add to a student’s repertoire these days. Ms. Darnel would definitely agree if she were here, and ask me to edit this essay at least two more times before finishing it. She would be right to request that, of course - just ask Odysseus, the Greek King of Ithaca, who learned to rethink many of his basic plans and instincts several times as he made his way through Homer’s tortuous journey to find his way back home.