Teaching writing is such pleasure. The classroom is the best part, but right now I'm doing one to one conferences with student writers taking the first course in first year composition, going over their portfolios of work through the term. I'm relishing the experience. To take time to chat, purposefully, about their writing and what they have accomplished and what they might think about should they choose to be equally purposeful about living the writing life a little more intensely--this is stimulating. I like them so, and in this setting I can show them that I have really paid attention to their work individually. Of course, I often have paid more attention to it than they have.

I have loved teaching the first term of Freshman English since I first did so in the fall of 1975. The startled thrill I see so often in students who never had any idea that writing could be so unconventional, while satisfying conventions, is irresistible.