Scotch College

Harvard Professor visits English Department

Mr Barrie Burton (Deputy Head of English), Will Simpson (’06), Thomas Simpson (’08), Prof. James Simpson (’71)

The English Department recently hosted a visit by Professor James Simpson from Harvard University. Prof. Simpson is currently Professor of English and American Literature there. Prior to this he was Professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University. He knows Scotch well, being an Old Collegian (class of ’71), brother to a current School Council member, and having two nephews at the School – William, currently in Year 11, and Thomas, currently in Year 9.

Throughout the day, Literature students from Years 10, 11 and 12 were fortunate to participate in several workshops with Prof. Simpson, where he covered subjects as diverse as Shakespeare, The Great Gatsby, Chaucer and War Poetry. It was a privilege to hear such a learned and erudite scholar take boys through a number of passages from their set texts. The inspiration Prof. Simpson evoked was clearly evident in the amount of enthusiastic discussion that resulted both among the boys and the English staff in the seminars he held over the ensuing days.

In another coup for the English Department, our Literature students were given a further edge in their preparation for the VCE with the visit to Scotch by the new VCAA Chief Examiner for VCE Literature, Mrs Margaret Smith. Mrs Smith joined forces with some recent Scotch Old Boys – Tom Kelly (’04), Andrew Kemp (’04) and Anthony Kung (’04) – to run special after-school seminars entitled ‘Why Literature is Great’ and ‘How to prepare for the VCE Literature Exam’. Unsurprisingly perhaps, there was much support for both.

BRADLEY WELLS
Head of English