Wilson Hill Academy sat down with one of our newest teachers, Emily Plummer.  Find out more about Ms. Plummer and her exciting new role at Wilson Hill.

What excites you most about being part of the WHA faculty?

Emily Plummer: Definitely the people. The staff of WHA is simply the very best, and the students are dedicated, disciplined, and delightful to teach. One of the things that I love most about teaching is that I get to learn from my students constantly. Teaching is really a two-way street, and because of that, every teaching interaction is unique. For me, that is exciting because it gives me the opportunity to be a life-long learner. It reminds me of something a teacher once said to me when I was in 10th grade. I must have been feeling pretty good about my performance in the class, because she told me that my education would never be complete until I could communicate with anyone. That statement opened my eyes not only to how much I still needed to learn, but also to the purpose of education—that I could share the experience of living in the world more fully through my work, play, and interactions with others. In a sense, that was the beginning of The Great Conversation for me.

You have a unique and exciting role to fulfill this year. Would you mind sharing how you are helping to make The Great Conversation courses even better than they already are?

Emily Plummer: My job at WHA this year is basically to support the Great Conversation I & II students in learning to express themselves through writing. Obviously, with a name like The Great Conversation, our humanities classes place an emphasis on the ability of students to engage in a conversation about the great themes that God has woven throughout history. Not only do we want students to read the Great Books and discuss them in class; we want students to be able to converse about God’s great story in writing, as well. So my task is simply to support that function within the first two levels of TGC. Logistically, I spend about 30 minutes in each TGC I & II section every other week, and then I grade the corresponding assignments.

What about you? What are some things that you enjoy when you aren’t teaching at WHA? What kinds of activities are life-giving to you?

Emily Plummer: Well, at this point in my life, most of my “free time” is taken up with family and church activities. When I have time to do something that I love, I enjoy making or listening to good music, spending time outside, or reading. Perhaps I should have been a hobbit since, more than almost anything else, I love a cup of tea in the sunshine or working in my garden barefooted. Most of all, however, I love to embrace the tension of life because I feel like it is something that God built into the world—the tension of work and rest, of body and soul, of action and reflection. Trying to follow Jesus demands that I strive to keep those things in proportion, and that is a constant challenge. I love a good challenge.

Can you share a formative experience or book that has impacted your thinking about education and the learning process?   

 Emily Plummer: Honestly, the books that have most affected my views of education are those by Charlotte Mason. In fact, I keep a quotation on my refrigerator so that I can be reminded regularly that education is about cultivating a life of the mind and a state of the soul that delights in its Creator and seeks to bless those with whom our lives connect. In her classic volume on Home Education, she asks, “For who remembers the scraps of knowledge he labored over as a child? And would not the application of a few hours in later life effect more than a year’s drudgery at any one subject in childhood? If education is to secure the step-by-step progress of the individual and the race, it must mean something over and above the daily plodding at small tasks which goes by the name.”