News

Journalist returns to Catholic High School

Published: November 14, 2009   

By Leslie O'Malley
Little Rock correspondent

Leslie O'Malley

Juniors at Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock gather around their teacher, Kane Webb. Webb left a position at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this summer to teach English, religion and music survey classes.

Leslie O'Malley

Juniors at Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock gather around their teacher, Kane Webb. Webb left a position at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this summer to teach English, religion and music survey classes.

When Kane Webb was a senior at Catholic High School for Boys in Little Rock, he decided he had to be a sportswriter.

In 1982 Webb's English teacher, Keith Bersey, suggested he consider the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. He did, and the decision was the start of his writing career. Webb spent most of the next 23 years writing sports, features and opinion pieces for newspapers, including the Arkansas Democrat, Arkansas Gazette and Arkansas Business.

This summer Webb left the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newsroom and returned to the classrooms of his high school alma mater. Now he's an English teacher.

"In a lot of ways it (the school) feels exactly the same. The gym smells exactly the same. Some of the teachers who taught me are still teachers," he said. "But it's totally flipped. I'm in charge of the classroom. The surroundings are familiar -- the experience is very different."

Webb has thought about teaching for a while. Even in the newsroom, younger reporters often gravitated to him with questions, he said.

Webb considered teaching a college writing class, and Catholic High School principal Steve Straessle had talked to him about leading a writing seminar for students.

"The older I got, the more appealing it sounded," he said.

Webb got to know Straessle through columns the principal wrote for the Democrat-Gazette's Perspective section, which Webb edited. They discussed teaching opportunities for about two years before a position became available.

According to Straessle, it was an easy decision to hire Webb.

"His real-world background in journalism and his love for literature mark him as a uniquely qualified teacher," Straessle said. "He's smart, energetic, and possesses a great ability to communicate."

In addition to his years as a writer, his experience as a former student is a "plus for the school," Straessle said.

"Catholic High has a unique system of education, and having been part of that system for four years helps Kane establish credibility with the boys and a leg up with the system," he said. "The school always likes to see its sons return."

Because of Catholic High's "tradition" of hiring teachers from non-teaching backgrounds, and the current instability in the newspaper industry, Webb said he decided to take the job.

"I thought even if I'm absolutely horrible, it would be great experience," he said.

In August Webb started teaching American literature and music survey classes for juniors and religion classes for freshmen. He also helps Gretchen Gowen, chair of the school's English department, with the journalism class and the school's newspaper, the Rocket Times.

Although he was not quite sure what to expect before he started, he did anticipate "a lot of work," he said, mentioning the "huge amount of time" required to grade papers and the students' desire to get their papers back quickly.

"The (school) day ends at 3:05 and starts at 3:06, getting ready for the next day and the rest of the week," he said.

Webb said he also expected to like the students, and he does.

"I don't think they've changed all that much," he said.

The school building remains basically the same, too. He teaches in a classroom where he once sat as a student, and most of the building is still not air-conditioned. The lack of air conditioning was an adjustment for him this year, he said.

"Early on, the heat affected me more than when I was 17," he said.

In addition, the transition from writer to teacher required a change from the flexibility of setting his own hours to a fixed school schedule.

"The schedule is a huge adjustment," he said. "There's not a lot of goofing-off time."

"(On school days) I can't catch e-mail until 3:30 -- I live in the past," he said, referring to the subject matter of his courses.

But one of the biggest effects on him has been a greater respect for teachers in general.

"My appreciation for teachers, especially good ones, has gone through the roof," he said. "You have to be on all the time."

For more experienced teachers, it seems "easy, seamless" to hold the attention of teen-age boys for 50 minutes five hours a day, he said. "I'm not there."

Webb assigned each of his junior English students to write a letter to a son going to Catholic High School in the future. He was impressed how much affection and gratitude the students showed for their teachers, even the ones "who were hard on them."

Webb is not the only member of his family with ties to a Catholic school. His daughter Grace attends Our Lady of the Holy Souls School, and his wife, Fran, is the director of communications at Mount St. Mary Academy, the high school for girls. She is also a graduate of the school. Their positions have created a good-natured rivalry.

"We gig each other about it," he said. He teases her about her "cushy" school because of its air-conditioning.

Although Webb said teaching is providing a needed break from writing all the time, he does miss visiting with co-workers at the newspaper.

"You don't see a lot of phonies in the newsroom," he said.

He plans to continue contributing articles to Arkansas Life magazine each month.

"That keeps me writing," he said.

Some of the other teachers and parents recognized him from his previous writing, but none of his students did, he said.

"It's humbling," he said. "But it put things in perspective immediately."

Although the journalism industry is going through some changes, Webb would advise students not to be intimidated. Ultimately there may be more opportunities for young writers because of changes in technology.

"There's always a market for good writing," he said.