Appreciation post: my 8th grade English teacher who made me write a story every week

I ran into her at the grocery store last month, thirty years after her class. She remembered that I always wrote about a dog getting lost. Said she kept one of my old stories in a folder. It hit me that she probably did that for a hundred kids. But hearing her say it made me realize how much those weekly prompts stuck with me. I still think about them when I'm stuck on a project. Anyone else have a teacher who made you write stuff that actually mattered?

3 comments

3 Comments

hernandez.morgan6h ago

Oh yeah, nothing like a teacher who remembers your work decades later, just to remind you that your entire 8th grade personality was writing about a dog that couldnt find its way home. I bet that folder has some real gems, like the one where the dog gets lost in the grocery store and you meet her thirty years later. Honestly, she probably kept it because it was the only thing she could remember without having to glance at a grade book.

oliver7193h ago

Wait, did you also write a heartbreaking tale about a depressed toaster that just wanted to be used? I'm pretty sure my 6th grade teacher still has that one framed somewhere.

ericb663h ago

The dog always found his way home eventually though, that was the whole point of every story.