Photo courtesy of Google
I had the privilege to converse with one of Vestavia Hills High School’s most beloved teachers, Mrs. Holly Robinson. Read below to learn all about her path to Vestavia, as well as some fun facts about her literary interests and organizations she leads!
Can you tell me about your path to Vestavia Hills?
“Sure! I’m in the middle of my 20th year teaching and I would say my path to Vestavia started with just having family in the area and wanting to relocate to be close to all of them. I was teaching at Auburn High School for 13 years and then, once we had kids and realized, ‘oh, it takes three hours to get to all of our loved ones,’ we decided that it was in everyone’s best interest for us to be closer here. We knew that Vestavia Hills was one of the top school systems in the area and, of course, I want the best for my kids, so when we were looking at relocating and I was looking at applying for different jobs this one was at the top of my list because I knew my kids would have a well-rounded education and that it would just provide a lot of opportunities for my family and myself!”
Did you always know that you wanted to be a teacher?
“No. (laughs) I always liked working with kids and would do a lot of things with children like babysit and camp counsel once I was in college, but I don’t think I saw that in myself until other people pointed it out. My stepmom is in education so she would always encourage me towards teaching, but I kind of thought I wanted to do other things at first. I do think it's my love for literature and my English classes that helped direct me. I loved the level of discussion that we could have where I was thinking about life in really deep ways and how what I was reading always mattered to me. Once I became a counselor and realized I could also influence young people in what I thought was a positive way, I just thought it was the perfect marriage of all that stuff together.”
If you weren’t a teacher, what other job do you think you would’ve had? What did you originally go out wanting to do?
“I have no idea now because I don’t think I would be good at other things. (laughs) I was really interested in architecture for a while because I like art and the idea of planning and drafting and building something that you created. I thought that would be really fun, but then when I saw how much math and science it required, I rethought that, too, but honestly I think that by sophomore year of college, I knew that this was what I wanted to do.”
What are you involved in outside of teaching?
“The main thing I’m involved in is Poetry Out Loud and Poetry Club because I teach AP English Literature and one whole section of that is poetry analysis, so I’ve just come to really appreciate poetry in ways that I don’t even think I did when I was a student. I’ve wanted to foster that appreciation and love in students at an earlier age because I think poetry can be really helpful in life in general. Poetry Out Loud is a school-wide competition that’s been around for a long time. It starts at the school level, but it's a national competition where you can go and compete in D.C.. It’s also the promotion of poetry and the appreciation of it and expression that allows people to have because poetry is the art form that expresses emotion. I just think it’s especially important with the isolation we’ve experienced over the last decade. To encourage anything that brings people together and provides a way to express yourself I think is really important. Three years ago we started doing Poetry Out Loud here at Vestavia Hills High School and we’ve been to regionals and state so far, and looking for someone to go to nationals soon hopefully!”
Fingers crossed! (laughs)
(For reference, I am one of the competitors competing in state in a couple of weeks)
“We’re still new to this program, and I’m still learning a lot about it, but that’s one of the things that I spend a lot of time on, just organizing that and working with students on learning their poems and practicing, but the talent here is really good. Mrs. Spradlin’s helping me this year, and I feel like sometimes we don’t have that much work to do because we just have to offer the opportunities and encourage students to participate, since students are already so strong in the arts here. And then Poetry Club is a new club we started this year. It’s five members strong right now and we’re looking to grow next year, but it's just a palace where students can read good poetry and learn about writing some poems. We’re planning a few projects to try and contribute to the school community, RISE, and things like that.”
What’s your favorite memory at Vestavia? It can be about teaching or just Vestavia in general.
“I think that one of the things that first impressed me so much about Vestavia is the level of philanthropy that the students are involved in, the way that you can get students to come behind a cause like a fall charity and RISE and join together to do amazing things. I mean, they’re giving their time, money, and all this energy to raise money that's not even for themselves because they see that they have opportunities to impact the world in meaningful ways and I think that's beautiful. The other schools I’ve been in, whether I’ve been observing or a student or a teacher, I haven’t seen the level of community and involvement that I've seen here. And then in my own class, I love the beautiful moments that happen when you least expect them, like when there’s a really fun day where everyone is involved or engaged and passionate about something and I go home excited about what I learned and what the students learned. It’s not anything extraordinary, it's just kind of beautiful moments that happen here and there.”
A little bit off topic, but as an English teacher you’ve obviously read a ton of books, what would you say is your favorite book you’ve read, or even your favorite author?
“That’s a good question. I think that one of my favorite modern authors is Frederick Bauchman. He’s written books like A Man Called Ove and Anxious People. He has a way with words and with understanding people and why they do what they do that I just think is really intuitive. I find myself highlighting sentence after sentence in those because I’m like, “oh, this is quotable” and “that's really good to remember”. I would say in terms of classics I could read Little Women over and over. I’ve always loved The Secret Garden and like any kind of place where characters dream. Those are the types of books that got me into reading.”
The Secret Garden was a big staple for me, or any Penguin Classic, really.
“Yes, exactly, all the classics! I think a book that kind of changed me was when I first read Tony Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”. It was totally different style from what I’ve ever read because it's a really difficult story to read and it’s tragic, but the way she wrote it from a child’s perspective and as that child comes of age and starts to understand the world and really all the darkness, but also the beauty that's potentially there was clever. I’ve never seen someone play with style that way before. And then Hemingway did the same thing--or, it's not the same thing, but a very different thing to me when I first read Hemingway and his style of writing. I was just like “oh, it's so harsh sometimes” and I just wasn’t used to that style of writing because I was reading all these classics that are long-winded and have flowery prose, and he was just really different. But I could also feel a lot from the way his characters spoke and the way he described things and the way he sees the world, you know?”
If you were to ever write a book, what genre do you think you would write it in, or would you even be interested in writing a book?
“I’ve always dreamed of writing a memoir, but I feel like that's every English teacher’s dream. (laughs) I think that I would like to put some of my family’s stories down because I learned a lot along the way and a lot has happened in our family from my youth on and sometimes I'd like to process that. But, then again, it's a really daunting task and I don’t know that I would ever write anything that I was really happy with.”
I feel that, being a perfectionist and everything. But thank you so much for letting me interview you!
“Of course!”
Be sure to sign up for Poetry Club next year, as well as compete in Poetry Out Loud! And if you happen to see Mrs. Robinson in the hallway or take her class, you should ask her for book recommendations. No doubt whatever she recommends will be a work of literary genius!