I was so impressed by this 2007 high school valedictorian address that I pestered speaker Jane Forsyth to track it down for me.   She really shows what an impression an English class can make when teachers help their students to take great literature seriously.
Miss Forsyth now shares her love of literature and music with students at St. Monica Academy, Pasadena, CA.

As I look back over the seven years I have spent at St. Augustine Academy, the English classes stand out in my mind. Our class has always loved English. We have been privileged to read many great works of literature, and our discussions of them have been lively; often they carried on after class. But among all the years of English classes, this last year, especially this last semester, stands apart.

We began the year in much the same vein as past years, reading two works that, though they had little in common with one another, were nonetheless elevating and magnificent: Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop and Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing.We also read one or the other of two encyclicals, Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae or our present Holy Father’s Deus Caritas Est.

This content, as well as dozens of other articles and resources, are available to our member schools and educators.

 

Click here to learn about becoming a member.

 

Existing members log in here: