TCR: Why do you think you won the Bertie Fearing award?

Winning a teaching award for service to the English Department is an honor beyond anything most of us can imagine. Several years ago, I taught a math major, one of the top five students I have ever taught, who had delayed completing some of her general college requirements until her last semester of school. She was taking four English classes. Her work was so wonderful that I offered her the option of exempting the final for my class. She accepted the offer and then said, "Mr. Parker, now that you have exempted me and I've accepted, I want to tell you something. I am finishing my fourth year at ECU. I'm graduating in May. I have taken classes offered throughout this university. I want to tell you that all the personality and all of the enthusiastic teaching at this university is in the English Department." She had been accepted for graduate school at UNC-Chapel. She intended to major in math. However, after her experience with our department, she told me she was going to complete a master's in liberal studies. Teachers in this department changed that young woman's life. I think her statement gets to the heart of the matter: personality and enthusiasm. The English Department has so many enthusiastic teachers, people who love their content and love teaching. They bring that love into the classroom ...

TCR: What do you feel makes you a successful teacher? 

Michael Parker: I guess I would say that, first of all, I never want a student to feel like he or she has wasted the time spent in my class--not even one class period. I want them to feel like I am working hard for them. I strive to always be prepared for class--and then some. I also want them to feel the need to work hard to do well in my class. Humor is an important part of what I bring to the class. In order to keep the attention of students over a large block of time, a few laughs and a few stories can help keep students pulled into what we are doing. If I am teaching about a certain author, I try to find something challenging or funny about the author's life to share with them.

TCR: What is your philosophy of teaching?

As the scholars in this department know, the root word for education is educere, which means "to lead" in one sense and "to draw out" in another. Although all of us complain about how woefully our students are prepared when they come to ECU, our job is not to fill empty, or nearly empty, vessels with knowledge. Our job is to lead them to educate themselves, to impart to our students a hunger and thirst for knowledge so they spend their time filling that hunger and thirst. In the classroom, we help them draw upon their resources.

TCR: Who influenced or inspired you to become a teacher?

Parker: My fourth grade teacher was my earliest inspiration. I hated her. I constantly draw from the painful experiences I had in her class to avoid inflicting the same type of hatefulness and disrespect on my students, regardless of the level of those students. My first and greatest positive inspiration was a seventh grade English teacher who taught so engagingly that I can still hear her voice--even though I can't remember her name. She taught us to sing the helping verbs to "Jingle Bells" and to cheer the personal pronouns. On the college level, I've had many inspirations. At Ohio State, my first freshman comp instructor was wonderful and human. Then I was fortunate to study with Dr. Edward P.J. Corbett and Dr. Thomas Cooley. Here at East Carolina, I learned from so many wonderful teachers, but if I had to pick two who have influenced my teaching most, I'd name McKay Sundwall and Gay Wilentz.

TCR: What advice do you have for those who are entering the profession of teaching?

Parker: First, do no harm. Then, respect yourself, respect your students, and respect your subject matter. Prepare more than you think you could possibly need . . . In an English class, students need to do three things for every class period: they need to read something, . . . write something, . . . and say something. Pure lecture--unless you can be sparkling and witty and profound during the whole lecture--is the death of education. Think back to your classroom experience as a student. Avoid doing the things you hated. Know thyself.