Natalie Duckworth, Staff Writer You may have already heard of Norfolk Christian’s resident Latin teacher, Mrs. Marsh, whether it be walking by her classroom in the hallway and overhearing her mythology lessons, affectionately called “scripta,” or taking her class yourself. If you have not met Mrs. Marsh, she has been a teacher at Norfolk Christian for the past few years and teaches Latin I through Latin IV/V. For those who have taken part in her classes, she is a memorable person to say the least. In a recent interview, she spoke about NCS, her profession, and a few facts about her life. Mrs. Marsh originally taught in the public school system, but shared that there were many aspects that drew her to Norfolk Christian and continue to be some of the most important parts of her job: “I really like the atmosphere. I really like my colleagues and my students. I really like being able to speak freely about Christianity, both academically and spiritually. This is also a nice work environment.” Not only does she get along well with her colleagues, she considers quite a few of them her friends, including her life-long friend Mrs. Jenkins, whose room is just across the hall: “Mrs. Jenkins is one of my friends. I’ve known her for a long time. Actually, her mother used to drive me to swim lessons!” Photo by Lily Rhodes; Mrs. Marsh ponders why she became a Latin teacher. She also shared what she was like in high school and candidly stated: “I was neither a good student nor a bad student. I was disinterested in things that didn’t interest me. I wasn’t the kind of person to join things. I didn’t play sports, because then I would be joining something.” For Mrs. Marsh, both Latin and teaching were never what she intended to do. While in high school, her mother made her take Latin instead of another study hall, even though it was a class that she had shown little to no interest in. At that point, she had already taken Spanish and French, which are both branches of the Latin language. Her French teacher told her that French IV would be the “end of the road” due to her lack of work ethic in that class. Despite her hesitance in high school, Mrs. Marsh’s current knowledge of Latin is impressive. Even more, it sometimes shows up in her dreams. In her interview, she said, “last night I had a dream in Latin, as a matter of fact. It wasn’t like the whole dream was Latin, but there was some Latin in the dream. This was one of the signs to myself that I knew the language. When Latin started appearing in my dreams, I realized the language was stored in my subconscious mind.” Photo by Lily Rhodes; Mrs. Marsh's infectious energy allows her to better engage with her students while teaching a difficult subject One of her college professors helped her figure out how Latin could become a part of her life: “My Latin professor at Radford wanted me to figure out what to do when I graduated. I had no master plan. I was not interested in teaching at first. I decided to give it a try, and I ended up really liking it!” Since then, she has not looked back. She explained that teaching has its ups and downs, but she realizes that it is an essential part of her job. According to Mrs. March, “the energy of young people is the most satisfying part of the job. No one has to be perfect. Kids misbehave, and that’s fine. That’s the nature of the beast, and you can’t take it personally. The good of the job outweighs the bad. The energy of the youth is something that I would miss.”
Even though she loves teaching, Mrs. Marsh expressed that she would go to divinity school if she could have any other job. Divinity school, also called seminary, is where people study scripture and learn about theology in preparation to serve in a ministry. She explained, “I don’t want to be an Episcopal priest or anything, mostly because I don’t want to have to advise someone else’s spiritual life. Divinity school would be cool though.” Alternatively, she would circle back to teaching but as a college professor. Above all, Norfolk Christian should be very grateful for Mrs. Marsh’s expertise and passion for Latin.
0 Comments
|