The chapters in The Immigrant and the Outlaw are kind of like potluck, and the last one is even more so: Other Stories. It includes one called “She Made a Reader Out of Me,” first published in the Earlham Advocate in 1994.
Yes, Mrs. Knapp, English teacher at Earlham High School, Earlham, Iowa, made a reader out of me and I have been grateful ever since. But she also made me a writer.
Because of a term paper she assigned, I chose the Bronte family. My local library only had the more popular novels of the three sisters and maybe one book about the family. The librarian explained Interlibrary Loan. A week or so later, a dozen books about the Brontes and more obscure novels by the sisters were shipped from Des Moines. I drove the gravel roads to town to pick up the cardboard box of treasures at the Dexter library. It was all free.
We were to write a sentence first about what we planned to accomplish in the paper. The whole Bronte family had become so fascinating to me that I wrote about all three sisters and their brother Branwell.
I wish I still had the term paper it because on the front of it, Mrs. Knapp wrote in red ink that I couldn’t cover as much ground as I’d hoped in such a paper. After reading it though, she erased (as well as she could with an ink eraser) what she’d written, and–in bold black ink–wrote A+!
One year she assigned writing a poem about autumn. It was the first time I’d tried free verse. I was rather taken aback when the teacher made a big deal out of this one gloomy poem out of the passel of cheerful ones.
Lucille Knapp, an English teacher and a farmer’s wife, was a large part in molding me into a reader, and a writer. I am grateful.
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The Immigrant and the Outlaw: A Collection of Stories from America’s Heartland is available in paperback, hardbound, ebook, and audiobook through Amazon.com and Amazon.uk.
I had a teacher like that too. Thank heaven for teachers who could see our potential and encouraged us!
Thank you, Darlene. Hurrah for teachers!
I was angry at first when I saw Mrs. O’s name as my English teacher. There were two teachers. Of course, I wanted the other one. Like Mrs. Knapp, though Mrs. O helped turn me into a reader and built confidence in my writing and I’ve been forever grateful to her. 🤣😎😎😎
Thanks, Brian. Hurrah for Mrs. O!
What a wonderful story! I had a teacher like Mrs. Knapp, too.
Thanks, Liz. Hurrah for encouraging teachers!
You’re welcome, Joy! Encouraging teachers are worth their weight in gold.
Your account of your influential English teacher triggered a trip down Memory Lane. The teacher who influenced me the most was also an English teacher who assigned lots of reading and writing. I understand why Mrs. Knapp made a big deal about your poem, which describes autumn in a different light. 🙂
Bless you, Nancy. I’d enjoy hearing more about your English teacher!
My favorite teacher’s name was Mr. Cavalcante, but he preferred to be addressed as Mr. Cal. He was particularly fond of my 7th grade class and requested to have us
again in the 8th grade. He’d invite our entire class over to his house after school and we’d discuss different classics he had assigned to read. He loved literature and shared that love. I remember he and his wife chuckling when one of my classmates called Huck Finn a rapscallion. 🤣
Oh, Mr. Cal! And you got to go to his house! No wonder he was a favorite.
I had a teacher like that too Joy…Mrs Miller and nearly 70 years later she will always be remembered. ♥
Thank you, Sally. Hurrah for the Mrs. Millers and Mrs. Knapps!
Here’s to the Mrs. Knapp’s of the world who challenge their kids and help turn them on to reading.
Yes, Pete! And if I’d had you for a teacher in the elementary grades, I’d probably become a reader much sooner! (Maybe also a writer. . . )
I wish I had had a teacher like Mrs. Knapp. Most of mine were the tow the line type.
Oh my, John. That’s who I had for history. And I was done with it until I discovered genealogy after college!
What a warm tribute to a teacher who enriched your love of reading and writing.
Thanks so much, Linda!
Teachers really do a lot to make people readers—and writers. I’m amazed you could get so many ILL books at one time back then. Our local library just recently upped their limit from one at a time to TWO.
Eilene, I never thought about that. Maybe it was because it was for a town of 670 souls, or for a school project? Since then, I don’t think I’ve requested more than two.
It’s very nice that you posted your praise for Mrs. Knapp, Joy. She deserves it.
Thanks, Tim!
My pleasure, Joy. 😍
Nice tribute to a wonderful teacher who took her job seriously.
She sure did, Dan. She’d even invite former students who were in college to talk to us how what we were learning would be useful in college.
I used to visit high school math classes to explain what why math was important for computer programmers. I enjoyed math and physics but back then I couldn’t figure out a good reason for a girl to study more of it.
Good for you, Dan!
Wonderful story and wonderful teacher!!!
Linda, thank you!
Ah….a story I love! It reminded me of my encouraging teacher, Mrs. Taylor. I wonder if she ever knew just what a difference she made in my life. I love the looking back with gratitude, Joy. You do it so well in so many ways in your writing. One of the many things I admire about you, my friend. 💝😊💝
Bless you, Vicki! Vietnam got in the way, then life in another state, and I never got around to letting her know.
I hear you. But look at you now…sharing her with all of us. ❤️❤️❤️
Other former students are adding their comments as well!
Isn’t that the best! Loving tributes!
❤️😉❤️