Mr Hunt's opinion on Literature

When I read, which I often do despite my aversion (poor eyesight and reading are not good friends), I only like to read the best writers - the ones with something powerful to say. The ones with nuance and grace and beauty. The ones who really matter. So I teach Literature.

When I first started teaching English, one of the things that annoyed me was how often we spent our time just saying what we thought an author was doing and packaging it neatly for an essay. It felt forced and formulaic and a bit easy. By teaching Literature what I learned was that there are many more ways of reading a story than that and many more ways to write about a text than just one. It made me a better English teacher just as it will make you a better English student.

Literature opened my eyes up to a world outside myself. When I read now, I can think about not just what I think an author is doing but also what different people, who aren't me, might think too. A book that I might love may be hated by another - not because they 'just didn't like it' but because it said something completely different to them than to me. That was a powerful lesson. It helped me to see the flaws in some of my favourite books, and their authors, and gain a better understanding of the world I inhabit. Sometimes it made me love their work even more thanks to their shortcomings.

I also love the variety. It is a subject where you get a bit of everything. There will be a novel, there will be a play, there will be a movie, there will be poetry. And the writing you do is different and interesting too. There are traditional essays, but they have a big twist - you don't just write about your opinion but also about the opinions of others and what you think of them. Sometimes we compare texts and instead of saying whether they are similar or different, we look at how different people can interpret the same thing in very different ways and why they might and how that might reflect them and their world. Sometimes we go incredibly deep into a piece of writing and talk not just about what is says but more importantly how it says it and the beauty of the language. We write creatively too and sometimes that is the most fun part.

I like that it makes me a better person to study it and helps the people I teach to be better too. Our guides are the people we spend time with and sometimes spending time with the great writers imbues lessons that last a lifetime. They usually have something important to say and if we listen closely we can grab that lesson, make it our own, and go out into the world and make a difference.

The people who pick Literature are always wonderful too. It is a polite place with nice, sensitive people who want to do well. It is a safehaven for the bibliophile. It is a place where we work together always to wrestle with the challenge. We are all lovely and you will love working with us.

It is a fantastic subject you will fall in love with right away.