April 9: Ace Composition Writer, Teaching, Saint John Baptist del la Salle

"What was the trouble?" Mr. Antolini asked me.  "How'd you do in English?  I'll show you the door in short order if you flunked English, you little ace composition writer."

Holden turns to his former English teacher, Mr. Antolini, when he has run out of options at the end of The Catcher in the Rye.  He's pretty much broke and has no place to stay.  Mr. Antolini opens up his home to Holden and tries to offer some life advice, as well.  (There is this whole creepy intimation that Mr. Antolini is interested in giving more than fatherly advice to Holden a little later, but I'd rather focus on the pre-sexual-molester Antolini.)

I think everybody, at one point or another in their lives, has a teacher like Mr. Antolini.  A person who seems to understand everything about you--your hopes and dreams.  I had a few teachers like that, in high school and college.  If it weren't for my senior high English instructor telling me I was a talented writer, I would be programming computers right now instead of blogging.  If it weren't for a fiction-writing professor handing me the application to graduate school, I never would have earned a Master's degree, and I wouldn't be teaching university students.  And if it weren't for a mentor and professor telling me I was a poet, I would never have gotten my MFA in poetry or published a book.  Yes, I've had a fair share of Antolinis in my life.

I'm not sure I've ever served the same role for any of my students, however.  I've had a few young people come to me with personal problems.  The Antolini age of offering a homeless student your couch for the night is a thing of the past, however.  I can't even close my office door if a female student is telling me she's a victim of date rape.  No, I have to sit and watch her sob with the door wide open, maybe hand her a Kleenex or two.  It's all about boundaries these days.

Saint John Baptist de la Salle might not have survived in this modern age of education.  His feast day is April 7, and John is the patron of teachers.  He did a lot of things in his lifetime for the advancement of schools for impoverished children.  He founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.  He wrote The Conduct of Christian Schools, which created a modern pedagogical system and is a classic text in education.  Most of all, he encouraged his followers to "have a father's love for their pupils, be ready to devote all their time and energies to them, and be as concerned to save them from wickedness as to dispel their ignorance."  My guess is John thought very little about teacher/student boundaries.

I'm not saying I'd like to make my house into a shelter for students in crisis.  No, I wouldn't go that far.  But, if one of the kids in my class is suffering from crushing depression, I'd like to be able to put my arm around his or her shoulder, say that I care for their safety and happiness.

Basically, Saint Marty wants to be Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.

O Captain, My Captain!