Carroll Montana

Katie knows that isn't exactly true, but she thinks I'm the quiet type--an English teacher who can help her with commas and semicolons. When I do, she pleads lovingly, 'Don't die until I get through college.'

College is on the horizon for Katie, and I'm only 54 and in pretty good health, so I'm hoping I can hang in there for her. I want to see her grow up. Encourage her. Promote wise decisions--ones more important than comma usage.

I do this daily in my business-writing class for college students who are serious about making a living and raising a families. Business majors and I have that practical side in common. I am practical and serious about teaching writing and have increasingly assumed an Old Geezerville persona in the classroom, as part of the strategic thinking called reader analysis that I discuss with my students. For them, I am their audience--their reader. See me? I dress conservatively. Hear my values in my vocabulary? When frustrated, I mostly say, 'Rats!,' and I urge students to reconsider their use of curse words, since they are so imprecise: They communicate the speaker's distress more than edify the listener. I explain this with my hands clasped primly, as if I might suddenly start praying. I don't pray in the classroom, but I sometimes use slang and a specifically placed curse word to communicate an emotion, and then I almost immediately do something prissy, for balance.

A big emphasis in the course is on what it means to be professional. We push the word around all semester, ulitmately reaching the conclusion that professionalism is achieved when boundaries are understood and respected.