The Teacher Who Changed My Life

She retired this week after forty years, the teacher who changed my life.

I had dreamed of being a writer since I was in second grade, but it wasn't until I took my first class with Kristin Lauer at Fordham University that I fell in love with writing itself.

She was my first and best creative writing teacher and was endlessly inventive in her choice of assignments. But more than that, she was a model for how I would teach when I entered academia for a while years later. She did not believe in pointing out everything that was wrong with your work, in bullying you like a coach, in making you tough because "the world is tough."

Her approach was to use humor and encouragement. She worked from the inside out of your story or sketch, making you feel like she was communing with it, and with you.

She said to me more than once that I'd publish and win prizes some day if only I wrote something "real." That was my City of Gold, the mystical goal that I reached with my first publication. It was a story drawing on my own life as the son of Holocaust survivors, a story I needed to tell but was afraid to.

She midwifed that story. I would read a bit to her on the phone and she'd comment and then urge me to keep writing and keep calling her. That story won a writing contest judged by Martha Foley, then-editor of The Best American Short Stories, and was published in Redbook. It wouldn't exist without Professor Lauer's dedication, commitment, and teaching genius.

And I wouldn't have had the career I've had or be the writer I am today, the author of 22 books, an author whose literary papers have been purchased by the Michigan State University Libraries.

This blog is just a small tribute to the gifts she gave unselfishly to me and to other students who were lucky enough to find her.

 

 

 

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Comments

[storiesfromhavendotcom]

08:56 PM on 05/14/2012

Books are the greatest tool mankind invented and the greatest source of entertainment. I remember a few years ago being inside a used bookstore. There were four books I really wanted to buy but money was tight and while I had enough, buying all for would put a serious dent in it. I agonized for a few minutes, putting a selection back, changing my mind and exchanging my discard for another. An elderly woman who must have been observing my stressing came to me and said, "You know, there are worse addictions than reading and those addicts spend their money on what they need. I bought all my selections. I'm an addict.

[Lev Raphael]

10:15 PM on 05/16/2012

I've had bookstore moments like that, especially when I was a college student and remember leaving one store with a pile of books. I still have some of them.

[MissMichelleP]

07:32 AM on 05/14/2012

I was thinking about just this topic this morning as I laid in bed, unable to sleep. I'm an 8th grade science teacher, and I credit my 8th grade science teacher with my passion for science. I didn't know until well after I took her class that I'd be trying to remember things that I did in class so I could do the same activities with my students. I'm glad that you had that teacher in your life who inspired you to go on and do something great. And, I'd like to believe that all people have that same person in their lives. And, I really hope I'm that person for some of my students.

[Lev Raphael]

10:17 PM on 05/16/2012

You may be that for more students than you realize. People don't always thank those who have inspired them, but whatever happens, if you're inspired by a teacher, you pass it on and hope someone will do the same.

[GreggGraham]

02:32 AM on 05/14/2012

Thanks for this inspiring post!

[Lev Raphael]

06:56 AM on 05/14/2012

Thanks for reading. Decades after my first writing class with Dr. Lauer, I am still in touch and still share my writing with her. She did an amazing course at Fordham called "The Writer's Way" a few years back where she invited half a dozen of her successful former students to come in and speak to a writing class about how they worked and what it was like to be writing professionally. We were all different and all honored to be there.

[runheidi]

09:09 PM on 05/11/2012

How lucky you are to have had such a wonderful person in your life. And how lovely that you are acknowledging her, letting her know what a difference she has made for you. The gifts you've given one other are truly invaluable.

[Lev Raphael]

05:46 AM on 05/12/2012

I've tried in my own teaching to pass on a little of what she have me.

[eric14]

06:28 PM on 05/11/2012

Nicely said. Great teachers are great.

[Lev Raphael]

09:08 PM on 05/11/2012

Amen. We don't forget them.

[npw350]

04:45 PM on 05/11/2012

A very nice tribute Lev. You don't forget these people ever do you. I had one English teacher in Junior High who used to clap her hands together after she'd read my work to the class. Her enthusiasm was a seed. Then I had two marvelous professors in University who took my writing seriously and nurtured my work.
I've forgotten the myriad mediocrities that peopled the hours of my education. But those enthusiastic and generous souls that showed me I had a purpose in life will undoubtedly animate my thoughts to the closing hour. I'm sure Ms. Lauer will yours as well. We are fortunate souls.

[Lev Raphael]

05:45 AM on 05/12/2012

The bright lights really make you forget the dim bulbs :-)

[BrixtonKey]

04:37 PM on 05/11/2012

Kristin Lauer sounds amazing ... I too was blessed with a fantastic mentor in creative writing at San Francisco State University. When I first took a class with Dan Langton, I didn't realise he was Daniel J. Langton, the Beat poet. I discovered a small folio of Dan's poetry after I had read "Howl" when I was twelve in a socialist bookstore in Hampstead, London. Dan was an amazing teacher, and to think that fifty years after first reading him, their I was in his class. It blew my socks awf. He's over 80 now and still teaches at State. He is the hardest teacher, and the best I ever met. He actually made me cry one day tearing into a chapter of my novel "Charlie Six." But his advice was brilliant and continues to be. www.WhereIsCharlieSix.com.