OPINION

English teacher and department chair, Dr. Herzhauser, teaches English Honors, AP English, and AP Research. Most know these facts. But most are unaware that Herzhauser actually “started at Osceola the year it became Fundamental.”

“I had been teaching for six years in drop-out prevention at a teen parent site and was ready for a change. With several openings at Osceola and the transition to Fundamental, the challenge appealed to me,” explains Dr. Herzhauser.

Dr. Herzhauser’s classroom incorporates a plethora of Shakespeare posters, piles of poetry and prose for the Oracle Magazine, boxes for the National English Honor Society, and a board specifically for the ‘quote of the day.’

“I like the open-endedness of language, so English appealed to me. When I started my undergrad, I didn’t see the creativity in the sciences or math. I saw them as closed systems with “right” answers. Language had much more options. As an undergrad, I became interested in linguistics and language and psycholinguistics because of my professor Dr. Vincent Lopresti. These subjects were mind-expanding: where does language originate in the brain, what makes languages similar, what are innate deep structures? Teaching was a logical extension of learning. The value of learning is sharing or teaching. I couldn’t imagine keeping all this to myself, so my students are the beneficiaries of my love of learning.”

Herzhauser, of course, as an English teacher, has multiple favorite books.

“Have you seen my classroom? That’s only one of my book collections. A life changing book: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. This book opened my mind to alternate histories and point of view. This work changed my view of the world from the small little Midwestern town I grew up in. Escapist: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien. My high school boyfriend gave these to me to read and I read them in a hammock in my parents’ side yard my junior year of high school. Romantic: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The sweeping story of the Napoleonic Wars and the power of love never ceases to satisfy. Honestly, anything by Tolstoy is worth anyone’s time.”

Herzhauser also enjoys King Lear by William Shakespeare, poets William Blake and Walt Whitman, philosopher Foucault, young adult author Laurie Halse Anderson, and Rainbow Rowell for “her corkscrew view of the world.”

Herzhauser also shared a significant occurrence in her life that some may not know about that she almost missed.

“Not studying abroad. If I had studied my semester in Reims, France, I wouldn’t have met my husband. With him, I have lived in four different states, had four children, explored this country, and evolved into a very different person.”

It is evident that Dr. Herzhauser excels in her field. When asked what other fields Herzhauser finds intriguing, she replied, “everything is interesting.”