English department teacher Grace Crumpton, who teaches Contemporary Literature-Poetry, speaks at the Contemporary Literature-Poetry class showcase on Dec. 11, 2023. Crumpton’s class has created multiple poetry displays in the Clarke Central High School hallways. “For the (poetry display) that (is) currently in the hallway, I said, ‘I’d like for you to make a project and I’d like for it to go in the hallway, what do you want it to be?’” Crumpton said. “Once we have all the pieces together, a few students go and put them all together. I like those because everybody does a piece, but it creates one unit.” Photo by Aza Khan
English department teacher Grace Crumpton and her Contemporary Literature-Poetry class have created multiple poetry displays around CCHS.
The Contemporary Literature-Poetry class, taught by English department teacher Grace Crumpton, has created poetry displays in the halls at Clarke Central High School since the second semester of the 2022-23 school year.
Crumpton’s class includes on-level, advanced and AP students, groups that may not interact during core classes. Contemporary Literature-Poetry allows students to appreciate a variety of other students’ work.
“It’s good for students to see other students’ excellence because a lot of times student excellence gets confined to the classroom,” Crumpton said. “Our classes are still pretty segregated in terms of academic ability and often things like race and class. When we confine student excellence to the classroom, those groups that don’t often overlap within classes don’t realize the brilliance that each other has.”
“It’s good for students to see other students’ excellence because a lot of times student excellence gets confined to the classroom. Our classes are still pretty segregated in terms of academic ability and often things like race and class. When we confine student excellence to the classroom, those groups that don’t often overlap within classes don’t realize the brilliance that each other has.”
— Grace Crumpton,
English department teacher
Former Contemporary Literature-Poetry student Nate St. Onge, a sophomore, has enjoyed creating these displays because it allows him to share his work with the school community.
“It’s a very enjoyable thing to do,” St. Onge said. “Ms. Crumpton always has ideas (and) I have ideas. It’s something you can do that isn’t necessarily hard, but there’s a lot of work that goes into it. (In the future I want) bigger (displays), more room (and) more materials to make better things.”
Former displays include quotes from “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou and biography posters depicting Black poets, with both displays concentrated on Staircase C.
“I would like to keep doing this. Every time we’ve done it, it’s gotten a little bigger,” Crumpton said. “I would like it to be a thing that at all times the poetry class has something going on in the halls for us to look at. The more we can get stuff in the hallways, the more awareness there will be about the class, (the) more people to come to our showcases.”
