What the Student Said

What the Student Said

by

Burt Sage

“Good evening, and welcome to It’s Your Turn, the program celebrating local community members in the greater Rochester metropolitan area. I’m your host, Alice Carpenter. Tonight we’re speaking with Dr. Jason Evans, the recipient of Monroe County’s Educator of the Year award. Thank you, Dr. Evans, for taking the time to speak with us.”

“You’re welcome, Alice,” Dr. Evans said. “I want to thank you and radio station WHAM for giving me this opportunity to express my gratitude to the students of West High School and my colleagues around the county for making this award possible. I hope this interview stimulates interest among your listeners for careers in writing and teaching.”

“How many years have you been teaching, Dr. Evans?” Alice asked, starting the program.

“I’ve been at it 24 years now. And I hope it’s as much fun ten years from now as it is today.”

“What subjects do you teach?” Alice asked.

“I teach English and writing to high school students,” Dr. Evans replied. “I also run creative writing contests that are open to all students in the county. There is a nominal award for winners of these contests—a little something to motivate their writing and actually submitting their work.”

“That must keep you pretty busy,” Alice commented. “My notes say that you teach six periods each school day and have a home room as well. And you run four contests per year. That’s a lot of work.”

“It’s not work,” Dr. Evans replied. “It’s fun. Yes, it takes a lot of time, but I can’t think of a better use of my time. Some of my students have gone on to significant careers in writing.”

“Any names that I would know?” asked Alice.

“Does the name Deana Williams ring a bell?” Dr. Evans asked.

“Deana was one of your students?” Alice asked, surprised. “I have read all eight of her novels. And rumor has it that her ninth is coming out soon.”

“That’s right,” said Dr. Evans. “In fact, it was Deana who twenty years ago saved my teaching career. Well, not Deana herself, but the circumstances by which I became aware of her writing talent. With one simple statement, one of my other students turned my whole career around.”

“That sounds like a very interesting story for my listeners,” Alice said. “Can you tell me about it?”

“Sure,” Dr. Evans replied. “It was the fall of ‘56. I had been teaching about 5 years and quite frankly was considering getting out of teaching. I was doing things by rote—my class structure was well honed and classes almost ran themselves. I found myself not wanting to get up in the morning to do the same old thing time after time. I guess I had just burned out, and some higher paying jobs outside of teaching began to look interesting, maybe even kind of exciting.”

“A month before the Thanksgiving break a letter from the State Regents arrived. It announced a state wide essay contest on the subject of Why I am Proud to be an American in 500 words or less. One entry from each school in the state would be allowed, and it would be up to me to decide which essay from my students would be entered.”

“My reaction to this letter was ‘Oh, no, just more work for me.’ At that time in my career I just didn’t have the energy or inclination to run even a school wide contest. There would be dozens of entries, all of which would have to be read and commented on. And one would have to be selected, which meant that all the others would be rejected, and I would have to explain to each student why their entry was not selected.”

“I found what I thought was an easy way out, and it changed my life for the better in a most unexpected way. One of my students was a pretty good writer, so I told him about the contest and asked him to write an essay for me to submit in the name of the school. His response stunned me. He said ‘That’s not fair. All the students deserve a chance to write the best essay.’”

“I had little choice then but to run the contest school wide. And the entries started coming in. I had to submit our school entry before the Thanksgiving break, so I couldn’t dawdle.”

“The entries were far better than I expected. I found myself enjoying reading the first ones, and then looking forward to the receipt of new ones. There were a total of 37 entries,” Dr. Evans continued. “And I went over each and every one with the student who wrote it. It was one of the most satisfying teaching experiences of my career. I got to know the student. The student got to know me. I was able to help each student on an individual basis. The feeling I had during that contest was ‘This is why I wanted to become a teacher’.”

“To end this quickly,” Dr. Evans continued, “One of the entries was from Deana. It was head and shoulders better than the others. I submitted it in the name of the school. It won first place in our county and placed in the top ten in the state. Deana put our little school on the map.”

“How did Deana react when you told her that her entry was to be the school’s entry?” Alice asked.

“She broke down and cried,” Dr. Evans said. “Now she could tell her mother that other people, especially her teacher, believed she could write. Ever since she could remember, she wanted to be a writer, but her mother had always told her that she needed to start looking for a husband instead. They couldn’t afford to send her to college, and her mother felt that the only way for Deana to ‘make it’ after high school was to get married.”

“And when the news came about the state results?” Alice asked.

“At that news even Deana’s mother started to believe that maybe, just maybe, her daughter could write and deserved more schooling. There was a special awards meeting to celebrate Deana’s success. And soon letters from colleges started to come in. It was a wonderful time.”

“Did you ever stop to think about what would have happened if that one student hadn’t said ‘That’s not fair.’?” Alice asked.

“All the time, now,” Dr. Evans said. “It took me several years to realize that without that student making that statement at that time, I might have become a welder. Based on that experience I changed my whole approach to teaching. I wanted much more interaction with the students. Ultimately, that is what got me this award. Because of those few words, the world is reading Deana’s novels, and I am enjoying a wonderful career as a teacher.”

“And Deana?” Alice asked. “Does she know what happened? That without that one statement she would not have had the chance to enter that contest?”

“Yes,” Dr. Evans sighed. “It was right after she graduated from college. She was living nearby with her mother at that time and trying to get established as a writer. She visited me one day and asked me point blank if a rumor she had heard was correct, that some boy had wanted me to open the essay contest to the whole school when I didn’t want to. Chagrined, I told her the rumor was true. She simply said ‘Thank you for listening to him. Who was it? I want to thank him, too.’”

“I told her that the boy wanted to remain anonymous. She said, ‘So I don’t get to thank the boy that changed my life forever?’”

“When she agreed not to tell anyone else, I told her the boy’s name. But that is all I know. I assume she thanked him, but I don’t know for sure. It was the last time I spoke with her.”

“What an inspiring story, Dr. Evans,” Alice said.

“Well, I see our time is up for this evening’s session of It’s Your Turn,” Alice said. “Tonight I have been talking with Dr. Jason Evans, English teacher at West High School and recipient of the Teacher of the Year award.”