4A | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5, 2019 | COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL
Cottage Grove Sentinel
116 N. Sixth St.
Cottage Grove, Ore. 97424
NED HICKSON , MANAGING EDITOR |
Opinion
541-902-3520 | NHICKSON @ CGSENTINEL . COM
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ment for a redress of grievances.
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Graduating seniors: The road ahead is uniquely
yours, paved by caring infl uence of others
Admittedly, I had a bit
of a crush on my high
school College Prep En-
glish teacher, Mrs. Fillers,
who was young, inventive
and extremely encourag-
ing to the only freshman in
her class of 25 juniors and
seniors.
The first semester was
a breeze as she allowed us
to explore creative writing
with few boundaries. Each
week, along with our read-
ing assignments, we were
given a new list of 20 vo-
cabulary words — usually
with a theme — that we
were required to use in a
story.
Most of my classmates
crammed as many of those
words into a single sen-
tence as they could (The
decrepit,
cantankerous,
ill-tempered man raised
his wrinkled, weathered,
sallow fist in a show of fu-
rious and frustrated rage
over losing his car keys...”)
I, on the other hand,
fleshed out 15 to 20 pages
of handwritten storyline,
usually with the last five to
six pages devoid of vocab-
ulary words.
I got good grades but, as
you can probably imagine,
was rarely asked to read
my stories in class due to
the time constraints of a
45-minute period.
Throughout that semes-
ter, I noticed strange red
marks on my pages with
comments like “incom-
plete sentence,” “check
spelling,”
“punctuation
needs work.”
As a result, I’d get “A+”
for content and creativity
but “D” for mechanics.
My thinking was, Who
cares about mechanics
when the story is so great?
Mrs. Fillers did.
As we headed into the
second semester, she took
me aside and told me that
raw talent wasn’t enough,
and that I needed to learn
the tools of writing if I
wanted to get serious.
She described my writ-
ing as something similar
to chainsaw sculpture:
Creative and interest-
ing, but it would never be
Michaelengelo unless I
learned the tools needed
to smooth the edges into
something seamless.
I listened carefully to
her advice and then, like
any teenager, disregarded
everything except that part
about having “raw talent.”
Surely that was enough.
However, in the weeks
ahead I realized it wasn’t
felt my grade was, and that
I’m sure my new school
and its teachers would be
better.
To this day, I still get
knots in my stomach when
I think about what I said,
and how visibly upset she
was by my hurtful words.
My sophomore year at
Siuslaw, I was enrolled in
College Prep English once
again. For our first assign-
ment, Mr. Danielson asked
us to write an essay titled
“At My House.”
From the Managing Editor’s Desk
Ned Hickson
nearly enough in the eyes
of Mrs. Fillers. I began
to fail miserably on my
assignments, which had
shifted from creativity
to the analysis of writing
prose and recognizing the
mechanics and devices
used by writers like Shake-
speare, Hawthorne, Hem-
ingway, Emerson...
...Blah, blah, blah.
When the final grades
were given, I went from
having a crush on my
teacher to being crushed
by her and the “F” on my
report card — something I
had never received before.
Well, not for English.
At that point, I had
learned our family was
moving to Florence and I’d
be attending a new school
whose name I couldn’t yet
pronounce. With that in
mind, I went to Mrs. Fillers
and told her how unfair I
We were given no fur-
ther instruction other than
it being due the following
day. When I turned in my
five-page essay, I felt I was
off to a good start with a
teacher who would surely
overlook the petty details
of mechanics and gram-
mar in favor of creativity.
When he handed back
our assignments, he had
written the following com-
ment: “A+ for enthusiasm/
D+ for mechanics. What
are you trying to say with
your essay?”
It seemed there was no
escaping what I eventu-
ally came to realize were
the demands of engaged
teachers unwilling to bend
at the expense of a stu-
dent’s potential.
Mr. Danielson taught
me about essay format and
the need to have a logical
beginning, middle and end
— and that energy and en-
thusiasm are wasted if they
aren’t given a direction
that readers can follow.
He remains one of my
favorite and most influ-
ential teachers. But I also
know, if not for Mrs. Fill-
ers’ willingness to teach
me an even more import-
ant lesson about writing, I
may not have recognized
what Mr. Danielson had to
offer me.
In a few days, seniors
at high schools in Cottage
Grove, Crow, North Doug-
las and throughout the
area will hear their names
called, announcing their
completion of high school
education.
As they step forward and
receive their diploma, they
will also be taking their
first step toward their fu-
ture — thanks in no small
part to family, friends and
the many teachers who
helped guide them to this
point in their lives.
And, in the case of one
newspaper editor, con-
tinues to guide them long
after.
Congratulations,
se-
niors.
Regardless of where
life takes you, the road is
uniquely your own and
built upon your own hard
work in conjunction with
the caring contributions
and influences of others.
And Mrs. Fillers, if you
somehow ever read this...
Thank you for the “F”
that changed everything.
nhickson@cgsentinel.com
HOW TO CONTACT YOUR REPS
Oregon state
representatives
Oregon federal
representatives
• Sen. Floyd Prozanski
• Rep. Peter DeFazio
District 4 State Senator
PO Box 11511
Eugene, Ore. 97440
Phone: 541-342-2447
Email : sen.fl oydprozanski@
state.or.us
(House of Representatives)
405 East 8th Ave.
#2030
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: defazio.house.gov/
contact/email-peter
Phone: 541-465-6732
• Rep. Cedric Hayden
Republican District 7 State
Representative
900 Court St. NE
Salem, Ore. 97301
Phone: 503-986-1407
Website: www.leg.state.or.
us/hayden
Email: rep.cedrichayden@
state.or.us
• Sen. Ron Wyden
405 East 8th Ave., Suite
2020
Eugene, Ore. 97401
Email: wyden.senate.gov
Phone: (541) 431-0229
• Sen. Jeff Merkley
Email: merkley.senate.gov
Phone: 541-465-6750
S entinel
C ottage G rove
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