Transcript: Mrs. Worthington on Shakespeare, Curiosity, and Connection

Good morning, and welcome back to Late at the Church Show. We are here today with Ms. Ashley Worthington, English teacher, head of McCare, her house, and Anderson Scholars and Humanities Advisor. How are you doing today, Ms.

Worthington? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.

Start at the very beginning. Where did you grow up, and maybe what was your childhood like in terms of the vibe of your household? Yeah, that's a good question. Well, I lived my early years on the East Coast.

So I was born in Virginia, moved to Boston, lived there for many of my early years, and then moved to Ohio to be closer to my mom and my dad's family. I'm a twin, so it was just me and my brother sort of running around, kids of the 90s. So MTV, bicycles, lots of readings, you might imagine. I was a huge reader.

My brother wasn't. the vibes were good. I grew up, my mom was a single mother. So my parents got divorced when my brother and I were pretty young and she raised us alone and did an incredible job. We, the three of us were super tight.

We still are. And so yeah, lots of, it was, it was the nineties. It was great. You know, looking back to some of those earliest books, we all have a favorite book when you were little.

So what are some of those books that you just remember being some of your favorites or even a genre that was really your favorite? Oh my gosh, that's a great question. I don't know how I wasn't expecting it. Books?

Books that I read? Well, okay. So my grandparents would always give me these illustrated classics. So I would always get those for Christmas and would tear through them.

So Heidi, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, things like that, sort of old school. But then of course I loved Amelia Bedelia and the Babysitter's club. I was huge into Goosebumps and Fear Street and all of the sort of popular kids lit of the day. High school is when I really started reading, I think, a little more, at least taking reading a little more seriously and started to get really curious about the classics and read more, I guess you would say, literary fiction.

Yeah. And then moving to those high school years, what were you involved in clubs, activities, some of those extracurriculars that supplemented the school? Well, I ran track. I was a sprinter and I did hurdles.

I was really focused. I was really focused on my studies. So again, I was kind of always in a book. I spent a lot of time with friends.

I was also really into languages. So I studied French and I did a lot of exploring of French, both language and culture in my free time. I was in French club. Yeah.

You know, a lot of teachers kind of say that one teacher in their high school career or even middle school really stood out to them and just made them feel really seen. Who was that to you? Or do you have a couple of teachers that really did that? Yeah.

So I went to Stowe High School and his name is Sean Stratton. I actually don't know if he still works there. I should probably try to look him up and send him a message because he genuinely changed the trajectory of my life. He was my ninth grade English teacher and he was one of those teachers.

He would always give me extra books to read and things to do just to satiate my curiosity for literature. And he inspired me in so many ways. I read my first Shakespeare play with him. I owe a huge debt to him.

He's an incredible teacher. If he's still there, they're lucky to have him. Absolutely. So he stands out immediately.

Yeah. Then moving from high school to college, you chose The Ohio State University. Yes. What made you say that that was the place for you?

That's a great question. So I went back to school later in life because I was in the corporate world for a while and decided that wasn't for me and I wanted to go back. And so geographically, it made sense. My husband and I were already together and it was a place where we could live close to his family and I could commute easily.

And obviously, they have a fantastic reputation. I knew they had a wonderful English program. It just kind of all worked out. Um, although, you know, sometimes the boys are curious whether I had the real Ohio State experience and well, I was, you know, I was already married and owned a home and all of those things.

I was a little, a little older than my classmates, but, um, it's a fantastic school and I had such a, uh, rich experience there. You know, looking at Ohio State while you were studying, did you always just go straight to English or do you ever deviate or inside of even English? Did you kind of look at many different paths of English before you kind of picked one? That's a really good, you ask good questions.

So I actually really enjoyed my Gen Ed classes. I loved astronomy. So I took astronomy for two semesters. I was supposed to take it for one, but I took an extra.

I loved anthropology. I also took a lot of anthropology courses. So I was really interested in science. Um, but English, you know, was home.

I felt most at home and, uh, happiest in an English class. So, um, yeah, I, I seriously considered studying modernist poetry for a while. Um, and Shakespeare just always sort of, um, it kind of happened to me, honestly, it was always available, always there as is the case now. You can always find Shakespeare, right, in any town or college course or what have you.

So yeah, I explored. I read really widely. And ultimately, I ended up where I ended up. Yeah.

At what point did you start to see teaching as a possibility for yourself? So that I knew, I would say, pretty much my whole life. I always felt compelled toward that I always figured I would be a teacher And when I was working again in the corporate world I always sort of felt that pull And then you know one day my husband said is this what you always wanted to do? And I was, well, no, I thought I would be teaching English, you know, and he really encouraged me.

And it's not too late, you should still do that. You know, it um it's always been I think in the back of my head as as my what my life would be professionally you know in spring of 2022 you finish your MA and then transition to university school you know a lot of the best students that we have from teachers here are about their interviews maybe their first looks at the campus do you what did you know about university school before your interview and your first time here and what were you kind of surprised to find out what a great question. You do ask good questions. So my first visit to US, you know, I was, I was finishing my thesis.

So I actually, I think my thesis was due three days after my interview. And so it was all just sort of at a, at a point of chaos, good chaos, right, but a huge sort of turning point. And I obviously had heard wonderful things about university school, great reputation. When I came to visit, I immediately fell in love with the school.

I think when I think about the interview day, aside from my colleagues in the English department, who I think are just second to none, my time with the boys. So getting to teach the boys and then having that panel discussion with them during my during my visit day was really, I think, what inspired me to, yeah, I think that's where I want to be. So I guess as far as the second part of your question, what surprised me about U.S., I think it's probably you guys. I think it's the boys.

I didn't know what to expect, right? So when you undoubtedly get that question in the interview of why all boys or why an all-boys school. It's so, you know, my answer was hypothetical. I didn't know what it was like to teach all boys.

And I really, frankly, did not know what to expect. And you guys are so amazing. And it surprised me in the best way how just talented and brilliant you all are. So that's been a really happy surprise.

Yeah. And going to that all boys education, you teach English in an all boys school. And so some people might say, well, that's not typically what boys might be drawn to. There definitely are a lot of students here who are drawn to it, but it's not like the typical thought.

So what has that been like teaching English and making sure that the boys are engaged in their studies? Yeah, I think so. There are, you know, I've taught you both, you both know that I think there are definitely times where I'm very aware of my own identity as a young woman, right, teaching a group of teenage boys when we read literature. And I think that more than ever, the humanities are so important and just trying to understand people and just the way that the world works as far as people exist in it.

And I try to select books that I think are relevant and will interest you all. I try to maintain, obviously, a level of appropriate rigor, but also accessibility where, you know, Shakespeare especially, he lives on a pedestal. And so I try really hard to help my students understand that it's not a sort of heavy highbrow task, right? It's something that you can own and explore.

So it's a challenge, you know, and I think part of that challenge is that some people view education as a sort of means to an end, right? Professionally or whatever. And I don't think that the humanities classes always directly point to that end, but I think they're so much more important than people might, immediately realize and so um I think that ideology sort of carries through my classes if not I don't think I'm beating you over the head with it but you know you know you taught both of us in freshman year and we went over a wide range of books and you also teach your senior class of just Shakespeare so if you could pick one book or just one unit throughout all the rest of time to teach What would it be and probably why? Jeez.

I mean, I think I have to say Hamlet. I don't know that I can get away with not saying Hamlet because I teach that both in my Shakespeare class and in my Revenge Tragedies class. And Hamlet, I think, for all of its expansiveness, it's just so important because I think it helps us understand. There's a critic who says that Hamlet is sort of the first modern piece of English literature.

And I think what that means is it's where we really start to see modern experiences of humanity and some of the concerns that still exist today in our world. And so it's hard to get outside of Hamlet in terms of, I think, importance just to not only history, but the literary world. And so I think Hamlet's just foundational. and I that would be the one I would have to choose but I do I still love teaching the rise we're watching God also um with the freshman I just finished Wuthering Heights with my uh one of my AP 12s the revenge tragedies course and um one of my personal favorite novels so it's always sort of a scary challenge to put this and put it in front of the class and say I hope I hope you embrace this the way that I did when I was that age And so Wuthering Heights is one that I would probably I don think I could get rid of either So Can you talk about some of those lessons that Shakespeare and some of those classics teach us I guess, why do studying those still matter? And what are some lessons they teach us that the modern world distracts us from?

Wow. Well, I think I had, so we do the Shakespeare Assembly every year to celebrate his birthday, and that's my senior's capstone project. And I always think about this moment because one of the students in my class couldn't be involved in that process, and so he had to do a separate project. And the through line of that project is I essentially asked the boys to consider the exact question you're asking.

Why do we study Shakespeare 400 some years after his death? Why do we still care? And so that was the challenge that I gave him was essentially, you know, you need to sort of generate work that answers the same question that your classmates are answering. and he simplified it in a way that I don't think I ever have been able to which is um Shakespeare's understanding of humanity I think is um something that we don't see elsewhere in literature just in pure sort of scope um so many plays so many different human experiences and so I think that's maybe the short answer um but as far as where we might be um able to look to him to make better understanding of our modern world. I think just the way that humans connect to each other and understanding, I think maybe the universality of some human experience and empathy, because in some ways we are all alike.

The way that we love our families and the challenges that we face just trying to exist. So yeah. One of the better assemblies every year is that Shakespeare Assembly, I would argue with it being always some type of game show spin-off. Yeah.

If you could leak what would this year's maybe game show would be, but overall, what do you think the assembly really does for the larger U.S. community and why did you kind of start it? Well, I started it because I thought that I always, I always love an opportunity to put my students in front of others to show what they're doing and how amazing they are. And so it felt first like a way that I could involve other departments because I don't think Shakespeare should exist in like the vacuum that is the English classroom. There's music, there's acting.

And so it seemed like a really great way to get other departments involved in what we do and to have the boys think about the plays and that work as I'm sort of pushing them to think about it all year, which is it is performance. It's not originally conceived as something that we sit and read. It's something that we do. And so it just sort of naturally happened that way when I started to ask myself, how can I get them to perform in a way that isn't just acting? so this year um I don't know how much I can give away but I will say that Jack Summers is going to be wearing a bald cap um it's still early it's still early in their planning phase I actually just introduced that project last week and said just start thinking about it right like just brainstorm think of what you might want to do um but Mr.

Steve's already working on the music and it's going to be a really good one. I think it gets better every year and it's always so fun for me. And my group of, my group of seniors this year is extraordinary. And so I have no doubt that they're going to entertain.

Well, outside of class, you wear a lot of different hats, whether that's head of my care house or advising various clubs. How do you manage kind of switching mentally that shift between teacher mode and maybe advisor mentor leader mode? well I don't know that um I guess answering this question in a way that isn't cheesy and cliche isn't really possible because I think everything I do is kind of rooted in care for you guys and so in the classroom that's just trying to help you learn in the best way possible I think as an advisor um it's you know maybe looking out for some of the more interpersonal skills or um stoking extracurricular interests. So I guess if I enter any of my roles with genuine care for the people that I'm hopefully guiding, that's the sort of backbone of really everything I do. It's one of the reasons I wanted to be a head of house.

I wanted the experience and commitment to the school to be really felt by as many boys as possible, not just those who I teach. um so the humanities anderson scholar track builds towards a final 5 000 word research paper so how do you get a 16 15 year old teenager to start out and say i have an interest to go to i have a answer to this research question and i'm gonna answer in a 5 000 word paper that's such a good question because so much of what those boys learn is being uncomfortable in that vast project at first. And so I think it's first just encouraging them as much as possible to pursue that in which they're curious. And, you know, it's not something that you can force. So even when I'm introducing the program to those who might be interested in their sophomore years.

I always try to say, and Dr. Fallon also says this about DV fellowship and Mr. Summers, but reading should be something that you already do, right? It's not something that you should be adding to your plate because you want to be an Anderson scholar.

It should be sort of a part of your natural curiosity already And so it starts there with the question of what do you read right And then with which teachers know you well obviously so that I can pair the student with the best possible mentor I, you know, there's a lot of structure and I've been doing this for a few years now. So I learn more every year about what milestones should look like so that the boys don't feel overwhelmed by that process and so that it feels really good for them and they feel like they're learning and not just generating a product, right? So yeah, it's a really, really fun part of my job and this year's batch of Anderson Scholars are so talented. It's been such a really cool experience to see them work through some of the research questions that they have and their projects this year are going to be so, so cool.

And we have some really good upcoming juniors who are working on projects and still in that brainstorming and exploring phase. So yeah, it's about, it's really about, I think, fostering interest and also providing that structure that helps them navigate toward that final, final paper. And you've been able to see the educational experience now, obviously you did as a student and now as a teacher if you give a piece of advice to maybe a younger mrs worthington still a student or any of us or incoming high school student what would that piece of advice be i i think that i would probably say um that it's so important to be curious i think curiosity is one of those things that naturally facilitates learning and again i think sometimes we can just get so bogged down by that which we put down for assessment, right? The paper or the reading quiz.

And those things are important, of course, but I think that if you're curious about what you're reading and interested in the process, I think that would be my advice to myself for sure because there have definitely been times where um I've been so focused on that that final paper that whatever I'm working on that I sort of look back and go oh I don't know that I really recall that experience as much as I wish I could um because I'm sort of myopically focused on the end um so that would be my long advice to my younger self and maybe to some of you, be curious, ask questions. When we start class in our freshman year, we would always do a short reflection of just a random question that was put up on the board. I'm not sure if you do that with your senior class, but what do you think that provides to freshmen or any English class that you don't really see in a normal or standard English class? You really do ask wonderful questions, you two.

So I do that for many reasons, and I do it with all of my classes. And I think one of the most important things that it does at the beginning of the year is it just builds community. I think it's so important in the English classroom for the boys to feel connected to one another so that they feel comfortable taking chances, asking questions, being vulnerable when we study literature. And so that is a sort of low stakes, really short, easy thing to build into my curriculum that the boys, one, really love.

I always find that when I run into students, you know, later, they'll always ask about daily writing and, you know, remember certain prompts. And so I think it's a fun thing, but also it gets you writing. You know, that's so important, I think, to understand that writing is not just what you do when you sit down at your laptop to type up an essay, right? We write all day, every day.

And so it serves a lot of purposes. it's one of I think the more important parts of my curriculum even though it might seem small and looking to the future when you your students describe you maybe 10 years from now how do you want them to describe you or remember you wow well I would hope that they would remember me as someone who cared about them and wanted the best for them in terms of what they're learning and hearing from me. I think, I hope I teach them something about the way that they read and study literature and think about literature and think about others and their place in the world. And yeah, I hope they would look back on me fondly and think I was a good teacher, I guess, very simply. You know, Ms.

Worthington, we always finish with our final question. What is your why? You do a lot more than English. You're shaping how kind of boys speak, they think, and they're allowed to write, and also how they understand their own English skills.

You lead a house community that's also supposed to feel like a home and advise serious humanities research that lets students who want to write creatively actually have their voice. So with all that in mind, we'll end with a question we always end with. What is your why? What keeps you coming back to this work about teaching, mentoring, and building community every single day?

Well, I think that I guess my why would be I hope that you guys, my students, feel fulfilled by this place, that they've done something that matters. I think, you know, when I think about my mentors, those which I talked about today and others, that's something that they did for me. And so I think that that's why I do it, is I want for you all to feel that my class, my house, it matters. Well, Mrs.

Worthington, it's been great having you on the show. Thank you so much for taking the time to share stories, experiences, and insights with us. To our listeners, thank you so much for tuning in. And we'll hope you'll join us next Wednesday for another episode of Late Start Show.

Thank you, Ms. Worthington. Thanks for having me.