Language Arts Student of the Year 2015

Preliminary Announcement to all Honors English Students & Honors Designees Who are in Attendance at this Gala Event: The synthesis essay in which you analyze the writing style of Ray Bradbury does not have to be posted until tomorrow night. I knew you all would be here tonight, so when I said “due Friday,” I meant Friday at 11:59 P.M.

Now to the Spotlight Award: The Honors English classes this year had to analyze the style of two of my favorite writers: one, as you just heard, is Ray Bradbury; the other, as you might have guessed if you know anything about me, is Edgar Allan Poe.  Over the course of this year, I met another writer whose style I enjoy, and he seems to be an interesting combination of those two: His name is Ray Poe.

By his own admission, Honors English did not come easy to him at first. He wrote, “Until this year, I sort of slid through classes doing little homework, and Hell froze over the day I actually studied for something. Ninth grade was different: I never knew how difficult English could be….”

Despite this, he never gave up, never complained (openly), never said a class or teacher was “unfair,” never tried to talk his way out of a consequence or brown-nose his way around an unfinished assignment. Ray just did it. He knew that his success was more a product of what he did than what I could do for him, and I always appreciated and admired that…even when he was disagreeing with me in a class discussion or presenting a point of view that required the risk of saying something unexpected.

And that’s the reason the Language Arts spotlight shines on Ray tonight: His style, his voice, the personality that comes through in the words he writes.  When I read him on paper, I “hear” that voice in my head: genuine, fluent, rich in vocabulary words that most 9^th graders don’t know, and most assuredly his own.  This is a sign of a gifted and “natural” writer…like his literary namesakes: Ray and Poe.

Congratulations, Ray Poe! 

This ridiculous, blurry selfie is the work of a fat man in an incredibly uncomfortable suit, and its quality should in no way impugn the smiling honoree on the left. Thanks, Ray!