VALLEY COLLEGE : Instructor Sets Poetry in Motion

Typical is hardly the word one would use to describe Shirley Lowry, an English teacher at Valley College.

On the first day of her poetry class this semester, she entered the room and wrote the word “Toyota” on the chalkboard, proclaiming her love for such an unusual word.

“I love words almost as much as I love food,” Lowry said.

She also has been known to spontaneously slip off her shoes in mid-class and stand on the table to get the attention of her poetry students.

“I feel intensely serious about the subject,” she said. “But I don’t myself feel serious. I couldn’t stop acting silly if I tried.”

Much of what Lowry calls silliness is intended to motivate her students.

“Poetry is, by far, the hardest literary genre to understand, because it is so compressed and expressive. I want students to take risks and be goofy in class and express themselves.

“A lot of times, the best ideas come from people who are just popping off with something. When you’re discussing poetry, you should let your rational mind go out of here and follow your hunches.

“Once in a while, a student will pop off with something and it will be glorious. When someone says something wonderful, I feel like putting a gold star on the person.”

As much as Lowry loves poetry, she doesn’t consider herself a poet. “I write a little bit, but I’m not a poet.”

She is, however, an author. She wrote “Familiar Mysteries, The Truth in Myth,” a nonfiction book published in 1982. She will take the fall semester off to work on a sequel.

But Lowry doesn’t want to change professions. She said she can’t imagine a better life than that of a teacher, especially at a community college.

“The college student, in my mind, is the highest form of humanity,” she said.

Students, she said, “are very courageous. They have overcome tremendous personal obstacles regarding their health, money, immigration. The foreign students are just learning English, yet they overcome it all. They just amaze me.”

A student visiting her office asked if she is fulfilled as a teacher. “Are you kidding?” she answered. “I’d pay to do it. It is the biggest challenge for me and the most fun.”