Why this Munster teacher created a literary journal for students across Indiana
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Once Ben Boruff decided to try teaching, he never looked back.
Now, he’s been teaching for 11 years, five of those at Munster High School in northwest Indiana.
An English and creative writing teacher who works mostly with juniors and seniors, Boruff also is the sponsor of multiple student clubs, including one focused on poetry and another on Dungeons & Dragons.
Every time a student asks him to help with a club, Boruff sees it as an honor. Plus, it gives him a chance to build rapport with students and create welcoming spaces where teens feel like they belong.
That’s also why he founded and edits Perspicacity Magazine, an online literary journal featuring the work of high schoolers across Indiana.
“If all Perspicacity Magazine manages to accomplish is to help some students feel a deeper appreciation for their talents, it’s worth it,” Boruff said of the year-old magazine, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
In a recent interview with Chalkbeat, he shared more about the magazine, told us about his favorite lesson to teach, and explained why you should choose your words intentionally.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
How and when did you decide to become a teacher?
I decided to become a teacher during my senior year of high school. I was initially going to study English in college, but I had some opportunities to work with a few younger students that year. I enjoyed it, and a friend suggested that I try education. I did, and it stuck. I figured that I’d change my major if, at any point, education didn’t feel right. But it just clicked.
Now, I cannot imagine myself doing anything else. Even amid the chaos of the education-focused culture war right now, I still love my job. Sometimes, I wonder what my life would be like if I wasn’t a teacher. It would undoubtedly be less stressful — probably a lot less stressful — but it wouldn’t feel complete.
What’s your favorite lesson to teach and why?
My favorite creative writing lesson involves the hero’s journey. I teach my students about the different iterations of the archetypal hero’s journey: from Joseph Campbell to Christopher Vogler to Dan Harmon. We talk about symbolic, situational, and character archetypes.
In other words, we learn all about the patterns that exist in storytelling. Then I tell my students to “flip” an archetype. Their challenge is to write a story in which they somehow change, alter, subvert, or rework an archetype. Intentionally disrupt a pattern. Make something wholly original. It’s a difficult assignment, but students have made some remarkable things.
What is Perspicacity Magazine, and what led you to start it?
Perspicacity Magazine is a new online literary journal that features creative works from high school students in Indiana. Perspicacity was created to nurture authenticity and empower young writers.
I believe every single student has the ability to create great art.
These lines are at the top of Perspicacity Magazine’s Submissions page: “Here at Perspicacity Magazine, we believe that authenticity and depth of thought are the best conduits of great art. We encourage writers to dig deep and explore the relatively untouched niches and jagged edges of experience. Be bold. Dive deep.”
Why a literary journal?
A literary journal provides an opportunity for students to showcase their works beyond the walls of their classroom. It is one thing to write a poem or a short story and share it with your teacher or your classmates. It’s another thing entirely to write a poem or a short story and submit it for publication for all to see.
I believe that all creative writing requires both strength and vulnerability: regardless of the work, you are putting a piece of yourself onto a page. That’s brave. Then to take that work and share it with a wide audience — that’s exceptionally brave. You are essentially saying that you feel that others could benefit from interacting with your experience. In most cases, that is undoubtedly true.
Why open the magazine to students from across the state?
Indiana has a rich literary tradition. We’re the proud home of Kurt Vonnegut, James Whitcomb Riley, Mari Evans, John Green, and more. Roxane Gay taught at Purdue, and the Indiana Writers Center has been helping Hoosier writers for decades. There was even a nationally recognized Golden Age of Indiana Literature [in the late 19th and early 20th centuries].
But like many places in the U.S. right now, that literary tradition is often overshadowed by obsessive escapism and doomscrolling. The issue is not that students today do not want to express themselves. My experience tells me that students desperately want to express themselves, but they sometimes lack the drive, the knowledge, or the opportunity to do so.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how have you put it into practice?
One of my mentors and former high school teachers, Pam Fischer, told me to speak intentionally because you never know what people will remember. She told me that former students have returned 10 years after high school and reminisced about things she said that she had long since forgotten.
My experience has confirmed this: Students — and people in general — remember details of conversations that I don’t. We don’t have control over how our words will impact others. This is both inspiring and sort of terrifying.
I try to speak intentionally as a teacher, and I encourage my students to speak and write intentionally. Even if we can’t see it — and we almost never do — our words and actions have a ripple effect on those around us. No comment exists in a vacuum.
How do you take care of yourself when you’re not at work?
Not as good as I should. I’ve always found it difficult to truly detach from thoughts of teaching while I’m away from my classroom. It’s not a switch I can easily turn off. Teaching’s a tricky thing because there is always something you can do better. You’re never “done.” I believe that being great at something requires at least a bit of obsessiveness, so I’ve accepted my one-sided work-life balance.
But more to the point, I enjoy spending time with friends and family. I review indie comics for a couple of websites, and like to see film and art whenever I can.
Chalkbeat is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.