Dear First name / friend,
I am so excited to announce that Mr. James ("Jim") Stewart (J.D.) will be teaching Logic and Rhetoric at Teach to the Text this fall!
I believe any student would be lucky beyond words to study with Mr. Stewart, who happens to be one of my beloved former students.
I taught Mr. Stewart when he was a freshman in high school at my first-ever teaching job at St. John Bosco Academy in Cumming, Georgia, back in 2012-13, where my literature quizzes had a reputation for being – shall we say? – challenging. That's why I made the quizzes both “open book” and “open note.” I knew Jim was special when he would take the quizzes without ever glancing at his book or at his notes. He would always be the first one to finish, and he would get a “100%” every, single time.
But what really impressed me was when I watched the video of his valedictorian speech three years later: Rather than waxing philosophical or turning his speech into a motivational “TED Talk,” he acknowledged his classmates individually, describing their unique attributes, telling funny stories about them, conveying what they had each contributed to his life and to their school, and explaining why he admired and appreciated each one of them. I was moved to tears. I was not surprised when, years later, he won an international award for oration.
When I heard he was taking a break from his law career, I thought, “Jim should teach. Jim must teach!”
Though he has never taught before, neither had I before they hired me at St. John Bosco. I believe that what makes a great teacher has less to do with “teaching experience” and more to do with passion. I know Mr. Stewart is a passionate person, so passionate in fact that I had to warn him against letting this part-time gig distract him from his work of editing his novel. I told him: Teachers have to set boundaries, that he should set aside a certain number of hours every week to dedicate to his classes, and spend the rest of his time on his novel and doing whatever else he likes to do in life.
He responded: "I'll try, but I'll probably do with teaching what I do with everything else: throw myself headfirst into the well.”
Ha! That's exactly what I did in 2013 when a group of women asked me if I would teach classical literature at a hybrid school; I had never read any classical literature before, and school was starting in, like, three weeks! I threw myself headfirst into the well – and never looked back!
I've always found that, when you end up saying “Yes” to something because you can't stand not to, that's usually a sign that God is knocking on your door.
Who knows where Mr. Stewart will be in ten years or how long he'll stick with teaching, but he's here now, and I encourage you take full advantage of that!
