Payne on Persuasion
Mrs. Payne, the 10th grade English teacher at Lamar, has been teaching here for 3 years. She got her Master’s in English at Mississippi State University in British Literature. Afterwards, she taught at Mississippi State for two years. Mrs. Payne wanted to move back home, so she dropped her application off at Lamar. She didn't know anybody there at the time, but she got a call back from Lamar and got the job.
Mrs. Payne is also the teacher sponsor for the Jane Austen Book Club at Lamar for 10th-12th graders. The club is currently reading Persuasion, Jane Austen’s last finished novel in her lifetime. When I asked Mrs.Payne why she chose Persuasion, she said, “It’s my second favorite Jane Austen novel, and to me, it is the most like a love story out of Jane Austen’s six novels. It is the only one with two protagonists that have a love story in their past, and I figured the girls (the members of the book club) would like reading it.” Mrs. Payne believes that when you read more books, specifically classic literature like Jane Austen writes, you are more academically prepared for college and for discussions about literature in society. These skills can be applied to real life as well. She also believes that the more books you read, the more you’re going to succeed on the ACT and the SAT, and you will overall be more well spoken.
Mrs. Payne has been a very outspoken Jane Austen super fan since first encountering the author when she was in the 8th grade. She once stumbled upon the Pride & Prejudice movie, and she really liked it. This led her to read the Pride & Prejudice novel, and she fell in love with Jane Austen’s style of writing and message she was trying to portray in her work. Austen was talking about the problems in her time period, specifically women having no control or autonomy in their lives. Jane Austen used her writing to show the people of her time period that women need more control over their lives, and something needed to change. Mrs. Payne believes it is important to teach Austen’s work in a classroom to show the problems Austen discusses and to help students appreciate what we have now compared to Austen’s time period.
Jane Austen wrote six completed novels, and Mrs. Payne has read four of them. Anybody who knows Mrs. Payne or has taken her class knows that she loves Jane Austen. She specifically loves Pride & Prejudice, which she teaches in her classroom. It is her favorite novel of all time, and it is the reason she claims to be in this profession. When talking about her love for Pride & Prejudice, Mrs. Payne said, “You can pry it out of my cold, dead hands…. This book is the Cinderella moment of my life.” Jane Austen is a very influential author, who has had a rippling effect into literature classes, like Mrs.Payne’s, for centuries.