It Doesn't Take Much

On Tuesday nights, I teach composition at a local community college. It's Comp I, and they all admitted on the first day of class that they are only there to fulfill a graduation requirement. Still, it's nice to talk about writing for three hours straight even if your conversation partners are less than enthralled.

Last night, I decided to go out on a limb. We were preparing for a reaction paper essay, which will be due next month. Up until now, they've been writing position and profile essays. However, I think the reaction essay will really be what they use for most of their academic careers. They have no idea how to cite things, no clue about MLA style and no interest in either. So I thought I'd lob them a soft one to start out with - my own work.

I was a little nervous that my short story, "Some Kind of Samson," wouldn't stand up to the tenets of good reaction papers. What if it didn't have an obvious theme? What if the characters weren't developed enough for a position? Egads - what if there were no context clues? I didn't tell them it was mine until after we'd discussed it for about forty-five minutes, after it had actually held up to most of the tests. One student said as soon as she'd finished it that she really liked it. It was the first thing she said she liked all semester.

I floated all the way home. Maybe publication isn't as important as readership. Maybe more people read my story last night than would have had it made the 132nd page of a slick literary magazine. Maybe not, but I like to console myself with that supposition.