The Ones That Leave a Mark
I was up the other night, thinking about my life, my writing and what was holding me back.. when all of a sudden I stumbled across an old book report I had written back in high school on the Catcher in the Rye, graded by the most influencial teacher I ever had in my life: Mr. George Blouin.
While looking over the paper, I instantly remembered our English class reading through The Catcher in the Rye
Mr. Blouin spoke about the story with passion, challenging us lost kids to face our own phoniness and sarchasm through the eyes of the controversial protagonist, Holden. He would write on the board so fast and with so much intensity, that usually I could barely make out most of his handwriting.
But it didn’t matter - he was getting the message across.
And when the smart-asses in the class didn’t quite ‘get’ it, Mr. Blouin would climb on top of his desk to avoid all the “bullshit that was filling up the room”.
That was Mr. Blouin for you. He was just one of those teachers that was so respected, by so many students, over so many years, that he could pretty much get away with anything and no one would ever say a word. It was an unspoken law.
He was a man that told us the truth and pushed us to think for ourselves. He was the kind of teacher that would literally get furious with you if he felt you were not living up to your potential. He was a man that truly cared about his students’ lives, and it didnt matter to him that he’d given those same exact speeches and introductions to generations of kids before us. He did it again and with the same passion.
So you can imagine why his comments and advice always meant the world to me.
And that night, in the midst of my writer’s block, Mr. Blouin had returned, through this lost and forgotten book report, to offer his words of wisdom once again.
I understand that I came across his words for a reason. I understand that it was meant to be.
What I still don’t understand, ironically enough, is his handwriting:
Any suggestions?
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Comments
As my “name” indicates, I teach freshman comp at a university. I’ve had to decipher quite a few comments like these from my own professors, and I fear I’m developing similarly undecipherable handwriting myself.
Anyway, this was very, very tough. Here’s my best guess:
“Your work has strength and accuracy. Now you need to develop more ideas in your [four? full? food? good?] paragraphs and with greater depth.”
Hope this helps!
If you read enough papers from the teacher’s end, you will see that students typically put little or no effort into writing a coherent paper (I am not talking about “great writing,” just something comprehensible. I find that students ignore comments and make the same mistakes on subsequent drafts and papers. I think teachers have probably given up on trying to write legibly; they figure if students aren’t going to take the time to pay attention to their writing, why should the teacher.
By the way, I have had students tell me that “at least we can read your writing,” so it isn’t a matter of them not being able to read mine. They simply ignore the comments.
That’s a very interest point Antonio!
Ironically enough, that is exactly the reason why today I am left relyin on random visitors to make out what he had written:
Someone asked me recently: ‘Why didn’t you just ask him what it said?’
Well, because I knew that I had let him down. Because I knew that he expected so much more of me.
He had seen the sparks in my eyes as we were discussing the book in class. He knew that I was getting it.
But then I turned in a mediocre paper just like everyone else. Not because I didnt care but simply because I didn’t have the time or energy to make an effort.
I was afraid to look him in the eyes.
I found this comment by Shira Tamir very interesting. I once had an English teacher in high school named George Blouin many years ago. I wonder if it’s the same George Blouin I had …Shira, if you get this message my email is cedartree@shaw.ca
Your writing has strength and accuracy. Now you need to develop more ideas in your ???? paragraphs and with greater depth.