“And then I held on. Professionally, around me, I really had what I’d call strong work alliances. I worked with people who really helped me.”
“I came after four colleagues who had quit one after the other. So I think the students weren't against me on purpose. They were just kids who had seen a parade of Language Arts teachers and clearly I was just one more. I looked very young, and I was very young, obviously. Little by little, things fell into place, I think. I took a step back. I really had some great bonds with colleagues who supported me, who let me unload—no doubt, I must have said some not-so-nice things at the time.”
“Then there was a point where it all became joyful, with a real feeling of reward. That is to say, in fact I liked this thing (…) It works (…) I had a moment—you might say a kind of epiphany, where at a certain point a veil is lifted and that's it. I realized that many of my representations of this profession were totally false, that in fact the moments (…) when I thought I was being authoritative, when I thought I was really managing the class, were not at all what was making it work. It happened, ultimately, through the texts, through transmissions of tastes, of passion. I then started to choose texts that fit the curriculum, but according to my tastes, things that really moved me, things that spoke to me, things that had meaning for me.”