S.O. Resident Gregory Woodruff Wins Teaching Award

When Greg Woodruff picked up his cell phone in August and heard the news that the New Jersey Council for the Humanities had named him “Teacher of the Year," he was on vacation with his family in Ohio. He also happened to be reading a book on the ancient Greek city, Byzantium. Not unusual. He has taught at Montclair High School since moving to South Orange 11 years ago, and is known as someone who shares his deep curiosity and enthusiasm about art, aesthetics, philosophy and literature with his students.

He was aware that his department chairman had nominated him for the award, but was shocked that he won.

His students may not have been so surprised: Woodruff’s two-semester Humanities course is so popular that he has had to offer an additional section and limit entry to seniors only. Even with a very demanding reading list and lots of homework (“We read all 366 of Petrarch’s sonnets, 30 a night”), the classes continue to grow in popularity. Parents of his students comment that they wish they had taken his course when they were in high school, he says.

The first semester focuses on the Ancients. Stories from the Bible, the Greeks, the Romans, and philosophers like Plato are studied, along with art. The second semester covers the Italian Renaissance. “I have them read, write and talk about what they’re learning. They have tons of things to say. We make connections across genres—architecture, sculpture and painting. We ask the big questions: What does it mean to study art? What is art? What is craft? What’s the context?” Woodruff said.

Instead of giving a final test, the students work on projects that require extensive research. Woodruff recalled a project that two of his students worked on about medieval jesters. One student gave a 15-minute presentation on how court jesters were used in Medieval courts, and both students acted in a video which they wrote, shot and edited. It featured them juggling, telling jokes, in other words, jesting. They then updated their roles to a contemporary setting—the classroom—and presented a critique of Woodruff and the class, the “King” and the “kingdom.”

"Their classmates were chagrined, as well as I,” Woodruff, 45, said with a wink.

Woodruff will accept his award on Oct. 21 at NJCH’s annual ceremony held at the Montclair Art Museum.

“Studying the humanities is as important as physics or chemistry or history," he said. "It’s another way of thinking about the world."