Photo by Reece Krantz ’16 – Mr. Seamus Walsh lectures his class about a short story. Mr. Walsh teaches a Modern Fiction class for seniors.
By Sam Romero ’17
THE ROUNDUP
Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction Mr. Seamus Walsh said he teaches Modern Fiction class for seniors because he enjoys helping students experience lesser known and diverse authors.
The Modern Fiction class teaches entirely fictional writings from the 19th and 20th century.
“The menu of fiction comes out of the modern period of American and European history which is loosely end of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. So our focus is reading literature from more or less late 1800s through about 1950,” Mr. Walsh said.
Sterling Leverett ’16 said the atmosphere and class discussions makes the class stand out from others he has taken at Brophy.
Mr. Walsh said that even though Modern Fiction is not a writing class, he is serious about getting students to write well and improve at critical reading.
“On a skill level, I like them to be better writers than they were when they entered class,” Mr. Walsh said about what he wants his students to take away from the class.
Leverett said that Mr. Walsh is a really good teacher in not “shortcutting” his students, and Mr. Walsh takes each step one at a time.
“He can be a friend when you need it, but he can also be a teacher,” Leverett said.
According to Noah Cloud ’16, Mr. Walsh always tries to make them think differently.
“Where other teachers will just accept an answer, he takes you to the extremes and makes you ponder what you said and why you said it,” Cloud said.
Mr. Walsh said he likes teaching seniors because he can narrow his focus on what he wants the class to learn instead of having to cover a breadth of information.
Although as a school administrator Mr. Walsh only teaches one class a semester, during his time at Brophy he has taught a range of all levels of English classes, Latin and religion classes.
Outside of class, Mr. Walsh said he enjoys reading a good fictional book, but he does not have a favorite genre of book.
“The genre I like best is any story that in someway I think authentically demonstrates and speaks to the human experience,” Mr. Walsh said.
His favorite book is “Cold Mountain” by Charles Frazier, a book about the Civil War.
“If I had to take one book with me on a desert island, that would probably be the book,” he said.
