Rewards

Every Monday night, Lamar and I show a movie in English and serve free popcorn. Students and their friends are welcome to come to the university and watch. I give them a choice of four movies each week, and they choose the one they most want to see. It is nothing much, just a chance for them to take a break and have a little fun.


But last Monday the most rewarding thing happened. As usual, Lamar and I were sitting in the back enjoying the movie. The students had chosen The Great Debaters. One of the main characters who is a college professor and the debate team coach is introducing his class to the Harlem Renaissance and its most significant writers: Countee Cullen, Zora Neal Hurston, Langston Hughes. The next thing I know, one of my first year students is whispering to the third year student sitting next to her. Then she turns back and looks at me, and she has the proudest look on her face that I have ever seen. She grins, and turns back around to finish the movie.

In that moment, I felt so fulfilled. I have been teaching Introduction to Literature to my first year students, and we have spent the entire semester focused on African American literature. She has read works by Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, and Zora Neale Hurston. She knew every author, and she knew exactly what the Harlem Renaissance was and why it was so important (both in America and Africa and around the world). And she was proud of it. And I was so proud of and for her.

To see a student feel knowledgeable and proud, to see a student trace the history of her brothers and sisters around the globe, and to see a student feel included in a world-wide historical discussion of race and equality was such an exceptional feeling. I am so glad I was finally given the opportunity to teach literature!