You know, I never thought about AI from this angle before, but thinking about it like this does make me appreciate my writing teachers, many of whom were characters. I went to the same all girls prep school my mother and grandmother went to and had the same writing teacher my mom had. Her name was Miss Newberry and she had more gravitas than anyone in the entire school and regularly made half the class rewrite papers for almost every essay. She also taught Sally Thomas to write, so that is my claim to fame lol.
I really loved it! The one issue I would say was the kind of “girl power” message the admin constantly preached excluded motherhood from the picture of what it looked like to be an ambitious woman. There were so many panels on different careers and how to advance, and often these women didn’t have kids or were married to men like Peyton Manning, but no one ever mentioned what it would look like to balance that with motherhood. I graduated in 2012 so very much the era of “lean in” feminism, which may be seen as a little more cringe now lol
My freshman and senior English teachers taught me to write well in high school. They were both lefty eccentrics who shouldn’t have been hired to teach in a Catholic school (since they both had VERY anti-Catholic leanings and weren’t afraid to make them known) and both definitely thought my love for my faith was weird, but they respected me because I truly loved to learn and wanted to be a good writer. I’m eternally grateful to both of them.
HA all my teachers thought I was weird too. My beloved Dad was a fierce conservative libertarian type and this being an hour outside Boston, everyone was very progressive!
I can imagine! My school was ostensibly Catholic but it was mostly just lip service. I ended up teaching there years later and it was a battle just to make a case that a theology class should be challenging. But I’m still so grateful for those teachers.
While on the whole we as a society have too many podcasts, I wouldn’t mind a podcast series where my fave Substack writers interview their fave English teachers. Thank you for your service Mr. Browne!
I’m so glad!! Next up, our school-wide art teacher who used to pull over school vehicles to try to rescue roadkill! My favorite story about him is that my best friend's very sensible parents let her carpool with him despite the fact he was perhaps the worst driver in the world.
This is wonderful. I love that you remember the specific advice he gave. My freshman undergraduate theology professor was the first one to point out to me that I shouldn't start sentences with "there is" or "there are" and it was a revelation that I couldn't get by with vague filler transitions and phrases. I skated through public school easily with good grades because being a reader meant my writing was better than average, but I had little practical ideas of how to improve. That professor made me realize how much of writing is a technical art and gave me so much concrete advice on how to become a better writer. Writing is hard. I understand why people who aren't naturally gifted at it and haven't been forced to improve their writing through instruction would turn to AI. But it's a sad state were in. It's a real joy to have won competency in writing.
I learnt to write when a Senior Lecturer in English Literature began attending our tiny church and offered to tutor me through my English Literature A Level. He told me he was going to treat me like a first year undergraduate and I had to write a 1,500 word essay every week. I was 14 and had been homeschooled all my life. I think he actually taught me to write almost to a graduate level, when I went to public school two years later I was shocked how much my peers struggled with writing very short 500 word essays. Dr Crawford Gribben - he’s a Professor at Queens Belfast now and I’m still friends with his wife.
The best English teachers understand one thing. Language and how well or poorly it is communicated can move others closer to or further away from whatever it is we are attempting to say. The printed word and how sentences are structured move us in ways that sound bites cannot. It is the reason why removing Sentence Diagramming from the curriculum of most schools, which culminated in the 1980s, resulted in lower student performance in grammar and writing. Consequently, students are reading less because they are unable to articulate their thoughts well in print. The type of instruction that Mr. Browne provided is limited to a fraction of private, public charter, and homeschool settings. Far too few to make a difference nationally.
I was extremely blessed. Funnily enough, I learned sentence diagramming from the elderly religious sisters at my poor, parish parochial school before I was enrolled in prep school! That was a good foundation.
My favorite English teacher was my harshest critic and I’m so grateful for her! Especially because she was a good reminder not to take myself too seriously, which I definitely needed in high school 🙈🙈🙈
You know, I never thought about AI from this angle before, but thinking about it like this does make me appreciate my writing teachers, many of whom were characters. I went to the same all girls prep school my mother and grandmother went to and had the same writing teacher my mom had. Her name was Miss Newberry and she had more gravitas than anyone in the entire school and regularly made half the class rewrite papers for almost every essay. She also taught Sally Thomas to write, so that is my claim to fame lol.
I love the idea of going to an all-girls’ school - I think it can be so good for girls! I’d love to hear more about it!
I really loved it! The one issue I would say was the kind of “girl power” message the admin constantly preached excluded motherhood from the picture of what it looked like to be an ambitious woman. There were so many panels on different careers and how to advance, and often these women didn’t have kids or were married to men like Peyton Manning, but no one ever mentioned what it would look like to balance that with motherhood. I graduated in 2012 so very much the era of “lean in” feminism, which may be seen as a little more cringe now lol
My freshman and senior English teachers taught me to write well in high school. They were both lefty eccentrics who shouldn’t have been hired to teach in a Catholic school (since they both had VERY anti-Catholic leanings and weren’t afraid to make them known) and both definitely thought my love for my faith was weird, but they respected me because I truly loved to learn and wanted to be a good writer. I’m eternally grateful to both of them.
HA all my teachers thought I was weird too. My beloved Dad was a fierce conservative libertarian type and this being an hour outside Boston, everyone was very progressive!
I can imagine! My school was ostensibly Catholic but it was mostly just lip service. I ended up teaching there years later and it was a battle just to make a case that a theology class should be challenging. But I’m still so grateful for those teachers.
While on the whole we as a society have too many podcasts, I wouldn’t mind a podcast series where my fave Substack writers interview their fave English teachers. Thank you for your service Mr. Browne!
1) I am glad you had a Mr. Browne in your life to help you in your writing
2) I love hearing about these types of characters. Keep writing about them!
I’m so glad!! Next up, our school-wide art teacher who used to pull over school vehicles to try to rescue roadkill! My favorite story about him is that my best friend's very sensible parents let her carpool with him despite the fact he was perhaps the worst driver in the world.
My school’s "Mr Browne" was Mrs Allebach. She certainly knew that understanding xeric wasn't enough when writing about the oldest trees in Great Basin National Park (https://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/identifying-bristlecone-pines.htm). Bristlecone pines are xerophytic.
This is wonderful. I love that you remember the specific advice he gave. My freshman undergraduate theology professor was the first one to point out to me that I shouldn't start sentences with "there is" or "there are" and it was a revelation that I couldn't get by with vague filler transitions and phrases. I skated through public school easily with good grades because being a reader meant my writing was better than average, but I had little practical ideas of how to improve. That professor made me realize how much of writing is a technical art and gave me so much concrete advice on how to become a better writer. Writing is hard. I understand why people who aren't naturally gifted at it and haven't been forced to improve their writing through instruction would turn to AI. But it's a sad state were in. It's a real joy to have won competency in writing.
Yes, I was so lucky to receive some of this insight in high school!!
I learnt to write when a Senior Lecturer in English Literature began attending our tiny church and offered to tutor me through my English Literature A Level. He told me he was going to treat me like a first year undergraduate and I had to write a 1,500 word essay every week. I was 14 and had been homeschooled all my life. I think he actually taught me to write almost to a graduate level, when I went to public school two years later I was shocked how much my peers struggled with writing very short 500 word essays. Dr Crawford Gribben - he’s a Professor at Queens Belfast now and I’m still friends with his wife.
Wow, that’s amazing!
The best English teachers understand one thing. Language and how well or poorly it is communicated can move others closer to or further away from whatever it is we are attempting to say. The printed word and how sentences are structured move us in ways that sound bites cannot. It is the reason why removing Sentence Diagramming from the curriculum of most schools, which culminated in the 1980s, resulted in lower student performance in grammar and writing. Consequently, students are reading less because they are unable to articulate their thoughts well in print. The type of instruction that Mr. Browne provided is limited to a fraction of private, public charter, and homeschool settings. Far too few to make a difference nationally.
I was extremely blessed. Funnily enough, I learned sentence diagramming from the elderly religious sisters at my poor, parish parochial school before I was enrolled in prep school! That was a good foundation.
the co-eds ! How disappointed I was after a childhood spent reading very old books that I would not be called a co-ed when I went to college
My favorite English teacher was my harshest critic and I’m so grateful for her! Especially because she was a good reminder not to take myself too seriously, which I definitely needed in high school 🙈🙈🙈