Go Home!

Mrs. Jenkins has been one of the most influential teachers I�ve had during the course of my school career. She was my sophomore Communication Arts teacher, and she is the reason I am at all interested in literature now. Her passion and insight for the various pieces of literature that we read infected me. When I started out the year, I wasn�t even sure I wanted to be in anything above the bare minimum class, but Mrs. Jenkins� Honors Comm. Arts II class showed me how to value literature in a way I had never been exposed to before. It was in her class that I actually became aware enough of what I was reading to be able to write significant literary analysis essays. Instead of only being able to write plot summaries and identify characters and quotes, I was starting to be able to write on meaning, how it was achieved, what it meant in context, how it could be applied by us now, whether it was significant.
Mrs. Jenkins also got me hooked on good reading. While I was content reading Tom Clancy and Michael Crichton novels, Mrs. Jenkins would talk about the greatness of books with real meaning, books with more to them than just an intriguing plot. At the beginning of my sophomore year, I felt that I was getting too busy to devote any spare time to reading, but by the end of the year, her influence had been so much that I compiled a list of books that I wanted to read, composed mostly of classics and her recommendations. My tastes and values, so far as the study of literature is concerned, were forged in that class, by Mrs. Jenkins. She brought out, more than any teacher previously had been able to, a desire in me for the pursuit of knowledge and an interest in the finer things of life.

Back to the literature page...

Go Home!