I have taught high school English, mostly in private schools, for 15 years. In that time, I have taught ninth through twelfth graders, journalism, AP and IB English courses, advised the student newspaper, coordinated and moderated the yearly debates for the student UNIS-UN committee, and sat on the admissions committee.I helped design Freshman curricula to encourage students to get used to high school expectations and sophomore curricula aimed at preparing students for IB study should they choose to pursue that path.Those years included creative writing of poetry and short fiction as well as study of the personal essay modelled on writings of authors such as Loren Eisley, Joan Didion, James Baldwin, and Alice Walker. There is more to writing than crafting a persuasive critical paper about a work of fiction.It was also the responsibility of the English Department to review college essays for students before their formal submission. When I was not teaching English I was a law clerk with Lawyers for Human Right in South Africa during apartheid, the appellate division of the UnitedStates Attorneys office in D.C., and private practice with Jones Day Reavis and Pogue.But my first love is writing and teaching literature.