Visiting Professor's Journal: On Teaching
by Kennedy Fraser
Koret Foundation Teaching Fellow
My months at the J-school have been like a drink of cool water after years in the desert. I’ve been earning my living by writing for 30 years, 20 of them at the old New Yorker. In recent years, I’ve been functioning in a magazine world that’s increasingly hard-boiled and dominated by the mass-market.
This is my second experience teaching writing; the first was some years ago, at the School of the Arts at Columbia University. Some of my students there were a little grumpy, as if infected by the same toughness that plagues some of the editors I’ve worked with lately. Perhaps I’ve changed since that first experience. I hope I have more to give.
My students here have been a joy to teach. I found them courteous, smart, idealistic and ambitious in the right way — that is, for doing the best possible work. I have learned a lot from them.
One of the great things the school offers its students is the opportunity to try out different journalistic crafts and disciplines — to find out who they are and where their strengths lie. As a teaching fellow, I have gone through something of the same process. I realize what directions I want to go in with my work and which professional dead ends I need to move away from. I’ve had a chance since I’ve been here to read and reflect. I also encouraged my students to read, especially what is lamely called “literary non-fiction.” If you are a writer who doesn’t read, who doesn’t continually find support in other writers, living or dead, writing would be an unbearably lonely business. I felt very depleted when I got here, as if I’d been drawing on my bank of ideas for years without having time to replenish myself. Last fall, I was writing a weekly column in the arts section of the New York Times. I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with ideas and meeting deadlines, but I wasn’t sorry I had to break off to fulfill my commitment at the J-school. After these months here I feel refreshed and able to tackle new projects and commissions that grow organically from my interests.
The school of journalism is a rare and admirable community. I have had stimulating conversations not only with my class, but also with many faculty members and visitors. Everyone who is anyone in the world of journalism seems to pass through sooner or later. I enjoyed spending time with NPR’s Terry Gross, and I was fascinated to hear the Young Turks at the new media conference. I have very much enjoyed participating in the Shakespeare class, led by Dean Orville Schell and Warren Weber, a scholar of plays and sonnets who is also a famous grower of organic lettuces.
Kennedy Fraser writes for the New Yorker and Vogue. She taught magazine writing this spring as a Koret Foundation Teaching Fellow.