By Amanda Valentovic ASSISTANT FEATURES EDITOR
Log onto your degree audit on the Hofstra Portal and you will see that some sort of literature course is required before you are allowed to wear that blue cap and gown at graduation. You might be thinking, “That’s going to be boring,” or “I don’t want to read,” or any number of other thoughts along those lines. But Dr. John Krapp tries to make his comparative literature classes so that you will end the semester wanting more.
“Most of the classes I teach are distribution classes, so I’m getting a lot of juniors and seniors who take them for the three credits they have to take and that’s it,” Krapp said. “I try to pick books that are proven winners. By that I mean that when students are forced to read them, when they’re done they’ll say, ‘Hey, that wasn’t so bad.’ If I can hit them with a really interesting book right from the beginning I might be able to convince them that it’s not going to be that bad.”
Krapp is a 1987 graduate of Hofstra who majored in humanities in his undergraduate career and then in interdisciplinary studies for his Master’s degree. He returned to Hempstead in 1992 – while working on his PhD at Stony Brook University – to teach part time, and then became a full-time professor in 1997. “This is the only place I’ve ever worked full time in this business,” Krapp said. “I have no complaints.”
Krapp says what he likes about teaching is the freedom that students have in the classroom. “When you come to a university you can think whatever you want, you can say pretty much whatever you want and if you do it well and competently and you provide reasons for what you think and believe, you’re rewarded for that.”
He also likes that every few months he sees a new round of students. “I meet new students every year,” Krapp said. “Every student has a story to tell, every student brings something to the conversation, and that’s a really nice thing. Not every job is like that.”
“Most of what I teach has to do with the way that people are always in engagement with the social forces around them,” Krapp said. “And they have to negotiate ideological rules and pressures and tensions around them to become the people they want to be.” Classes he teaches include The Oedipus Theme, which focuses on Oedipus and its themes throughout different works of literature, and Eros and Love, which looks at the theme of love in different works.
“The nice thing about literature is that you see lots of different scenarios where people are trying to work their way through problems, and of course you can make literature relevant to your own personal experiences,” Krapp said. “I don’t care if the students walk out remembering everything about the books that they read. But if those books can help them live the lives that they want to live and live them better, then that’s the function of reading and studying literature.”
To anyone who wants to become a teacher, Krapp has some advice. “You have to want to do this,” he said. “You have to prepare for the days when you walk into a classroom and you’re the only person who read the book, you still have to stand and deliver.” Krapp also says you have to be a people person to teach. “You have to be able to work with people and help students become the people they want to be.”
“I hate seeing students walking out of a classroom not thriving,” Krapp said about why he loves his job. “I want them to be ascending when they walk out of the class. I don’t want them to settle for mediocrity and be average. In a place like this, you can be extraordinary.”