As I walked by the main office, one of the secretaries yelled at me, “Professor Staten, you have a package in your mailbox.” I said thank you and I stopped by my mailbox in the hallway on the way to my office. There was a package from the Center for the Study of the Presidency. There were ten copies of the journal which contained my article. It was my first publication in a refereed professional journal.
A student then walked up to me, “Dr. Staten, I see you assigned All the King’s Men in your class this afternoon. Why are we reading a novel in a politics class?” I smiled, “Because it is my favorite book of all time. I learned more about American politics from that novel than any other book and that book helped me to become a better writer. See you soon.”
I hurried to my office, sat down at my desk, and opened the journal to my article. Despite the fact that I had spent 5 months researching and writing it, I started reading it again, like it was brand new to me. After I finished reading, my mind drifted back to my senior year in high school and Mr. Shy’s Creative Writing class.
I walked into the classroom the first day of school and sat next to Marty. She was my best friend, confidant, and study mate. We were both so excited about taking the class. Over the course, we learned the mechanics and skills of writing. Mr. Shy was demanding yet patient and encouraging. He identified our writing strengths and weaknesses. He worked with us on improving our weaknesses. We wrote a research paper, we wrote essays, we wrote short stories, we wrote various types of poetry, we wrote book reviews, we wrote movie reviews, and we wrote articles for the school newspaper. We gave oral presentations in class. Mr. Shy spent individual time with each of us talking about how to improve our writing with each assignment. It was the first time I had experienced one on one teaching. By the end of the class, Mr. Shy had become a mentor to each of us.
We read some of the short stories by Ernest Hemmingway prior to writing our own short stories. I loved Hemmingway’s style. Brief, to the point, concise, not overly detailed, and he allowed the reader to see in-between the lines he had written. To this day I still love to read Hemmingway.
Marty and I read All the King’s Men and wrote a review of the book and presented it to the class. Mr. Shy told us that the secret to writing with a partner is for each person to learn the other’s strengths. Each person should then contribute in such a way that maximizes his strengths. He emphasized, “It is not a competition but a collaboration.” We quickly discovered that Marty was best at organizing the essay and identifying themes, and I was best at using the appropriate words and expressions. While we had been close friends for a few years, this brought us even closer.
Toward the end of the class and unknown to us, Mr. Shy had arranged for Marty and me to read some of our essays and poetry to several professors of English at Marshall University. As we walked up the stairs to one of the seminar rooms in the student union, we were both nervous and intimidated because we had to read what we, high school students, had actually written in front of some of the university faculty. Mr. Shy stopped at the top of the stairs, “You both have great writing abilities, and you will be wonderful tonight. Just be yourselves.” The faculty members had already read the research papers we had written. They indicated that they were better written than most college students. This made us feel more comfortable as we read a few of our essays and poems to them. We had a wonderful discussion with the faculty and Mr. Shy on why we chose certain topics for our essays and poetry. At the end of the discussion, the faculty strongly encouraged us to continue writing no matter what we decided to study in college. It was the best academic event in which I had ever participated, and it was all due to my teacher and mentor, Mr. Shy.
A few days after graduation, Mr. Shy took me out to dinner to Rebels and Redcoats in Huntington to celebrate my upcoming departure for the Naval Academy. We laughed and chatted while dining on prime rib. While we were eating dessert, he looked at me very seriously, “Clifford, you have all the skills of an excellent writer. I know you plan to major in engineering but if you ever decide to change your major or if you decide you don’t want a career in the Navy and go to another university, I urge you to write. Continue to write. You are too talented to simply use a slide rule the rest of your life.” His words were prophetic, and his comment has stayed with me ever since.
I placed the journal down on my desk and thought out loud, “Thank you Mr. Shy.”
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