In a conversation with an esteemed colleague, we started discussing influential teachers at school. We may forget the names of many people in our lifetime, but influential teachers hold enduring resonance.
My inspiration, the one who really got me into reading and writing, was Mr. Edwards, a Welsh teacher in a primary school based in Runcorn, Cheshire. It was a difficult time. I had missed out on significant amounts of schooling owing to moving house and emigration. I struggled to read and had, at times, received reading interventionist strategies and a potential screening for learning differences. There was nothing conclusive, but in all honesty my reading ability took years to catch up. Three eureka moments spring to mind when I think of Mr. Edward’s influence.
- Creative writing. Mr. Edwards particular stroke of genius was to write a sentence on the blackboard during lunchtime which was the first line of a creative writing essay. My friends and I were so enthralled by this thread that we peered into the portacabin’s window and tried to read what he had written. We discussed the endless possibilities in continuing the story. It was an immediate trigger for our imagination to be let loose. That class got me into writing.
- Silver Sword: Furthermore, Mr. Edwards read Silver Sword by Ian Serralier. It was an absolutely gripping tale. I was there, living the experience with them as refugees on the run trying desperately to find their parents; the fabled Nostos theme originating from the Odyssey. I now recognise the serendipity of that moment. At the age of eight or nine, this escape story held me on the edge of my chair for weeks. I longed for more books. As a family we had moved from place to place, country to country, house to house. Serralier’s more exciting story was set in wartime, escaping Poland’s apocalypse to the safe neutrality of Switzerland, perilously on the run from Nazis like hunted animals. Uprooted, they longed for safer borders free from terror and anxiety. To a child’s unfettered imagination, it was magical. At that age, there is a transitional period between magic and the beckoning dawn of reality, so brilliantly captured by Halldór Laxness in Independent People; that becoming self-aware from the innocent shelter of early childhood, you start growing up. That book got me into reading.
- Book clubs: A monthly book club also came to Mr. Edward’s class. As his dedicated pupils, we eagerly sifted through a catalogue of book covers that electrified our imaginations. The book club got me into reading escape stories and adventure books as I continually rekindled that sense of uprootedness and Nostos within me. Even though I work in a Library and books are easily borrowed at no cost, I have always enjoyed buying and owning a book. Possessing a book always seem to be satisfying, like anchors reassuringly holding everything together, as we drift through life trying to find meaning and seize something more tangible.
Mr. Edwards had a significant impact on me. English was my strongest subject at school. Now, in Writing Development, I can help others like Mr. Edwards helped me. Who inspired you at school to read and write?