Video by: Mr. John Guevremont
Summary of the story below:
Mr. Guevremont, a past student, as well as an English teacher at Mount for over 40 years tells his story below of his experience on the third floor. Forty out of his forty one years teaching at Mt. St. Charles has been spent in room 320. But well before he came back to teach at Mount, the third floor had much more sentimental value to him. The story begins when Mr. Guevremont skipped a full day of school because he was reading the George Orwell novel, 1984, in the library. When the school, found out that he was skipping class to read, they decided to make a course just for him. They called it Independent Study Reading. In the class, he was to read a book and discuss it on a Friday afternoon while pacing up and down the third floor. And then he would read another book, and another book, and another book. The Brother who was running the class, Brother Paul Demers, instructed that his first book be James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man"." They met on a Friday afternoon and walked and walked up and down the third floor until they were finished. Then he was instructed to read another book. They did that for the entirety of his second semester junior year. Mr. Government remarks on how his "great discussions with him" eventually led him to his career in English, as well as Mr. Lawrence's "influential English classes."
Closed Captioning for Video:
Hi, I am Mr. Guevremont, as many of you know, and this is my classroom and has been for 40 of my 41 years. The other thing that's interesting about this floor that I have been on for 41 years is that as a student this floor was very important to me, too. Because, many of you know the story about how I bunked a full day of school because I wanted to read the book "1984". When the president, or, the principal of the school, found that out, he pulled me out of class and said, "Mr. Guevremont, apparently you like to read books, so I am going to create a course just for you. We are going to call it Independent Study Reading. I am going to mention a book to you and you are going to take it out of the library. You are going to read it and in two week on Friday, we will meet. And, you and I will walk up and down the third floor" - which is what we are doing right now - "and we will discuss the book. Your first book will be James Joyce's "Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man"." I said, "OK, Brother, I am going to do that." His name was Brother Paul Demers. So, I went down to the library and got the book. The book that was kind of over my head, I didn't know anything about James Joyce. It was kind of difficult to read. I did read it. We met and we walked and walked and walked on a Friday afternoon, probably did 10 trips back and forth. When it was done he said, "Ok, I think you understood the book and got a lot out of it. The next book I would like you to read is "Lord of the Flies", go to the library and take that out." So, we did that, probably the second semester of my junior year. Had great discussions with him. Ultimately, Brother Paul was an English teacher, as well as being the principal, I think probably my decision to go into English had more to do with that third floor walking than anything else that happened in all the English classes at Mount. Although, I have to say Mr. Lawrence's classes were also very influential. That is what this floor means to me. It is kind of where my career started.