Faculty Spotlight: On Ancient History & Helping with Karen Graham

Mrs. Graham grew up with a passion for being with and helping people. She decided to study Elementary Education and minor in Spanish at Baylor University. An education degree would allow her to help students, and Spanish would be useful and convenient since she already had learned a fair amount while growing up in El Paso. But, after taking a Great Texts class her freshman year, Mrs. Graham chose to study great texts so that she would be better prepared to teach with useful and interesting material.

Mrs. Karen Graham grew up with a passion for helping people. Upon coming to Baylor University, she chose to study Elementary Education with the intent of working with students. Having grown up in El Paso, Mrs. Graham learned a fair amount of Spanish and pursued it as an additional major. However, her path changed after taking a class in the Great Texts department during her freshman year. After falling in love with the material, she switched to studying Great Texts, still in pursuit of one day becoming a teacher.

Now, Mrs. Graham is enjoying her seventh year of teaching at Live Oak. When teaching seventh graders about history and literature, Mrs. Graham leads group readings and discussions of young adult fiction novels set in ancient times. She also helps students read ancient texts such as Homer’s Odyssey and Aesop’s Fables. By understanding people in other times and scenarios, students gain the valuable traits of curiosity and empathy with diverse people.

Mrs. Graham believes that seventh graders have great abilities and potential with critical text analysis. Reading Shakespearean comedies with her classes is a particular favorite as it produces great laughter together. Mrs. Graham teaches history and literature with the hope her students will “enjoy the story and remember it,” not just simply remember a few facts.

As with history and literature, Mrs. Graham teaches composition in a unique way. Not only does she teach persuasive writing, but she teaches imitative writing where students imitate the writing styles of classic writers such as Homer and Shakespeare. She declares that when students take the time, they are impressively skilled at understanding and imitating classic great writers. For Mrs. Graham, history, literature, and composition all combine as helpful tools in teaching students Christian virtue and practical skills while simultaneously building lasting relationships.

Karen Graham teaches history, literature, and composition and serves as History Department chair at the Logic/Rhetoric school at Live Oak.