Challenging to tackle but satisfying to complete, the late Dr. Eric Johnson's memorable writing projects were one motif in students' comments about this beloved professor. As President Griffith remarked at the Christmas luncheon, Johnson was in the forefront of many PC initiatives, and in his innovative writing assignments he was a mentor to more experienced professors. His writing projects engaged students by asking them to make course concepts relevant to their own lives and the real world. He provided detailed rubrics specific to each paper with the course syllabi and gave students choices, often providing controversial topics: nature vs. nurture or stay-at-home mom vs. career mom. Several of the Writing Center tutors who wrote papers in his classes analyzed the impact of his writing assignments.

Marion Jackson says, "Our major research paper for adolescent psychology is one that stands out in my mind more so than most papers I have written since I have been at PC. The paper was unique because it incorporated an aspect of my own experience as an adolescent, being a dancer, with both what we had learned in class and a variety of psychological research. Throughout middle and high school, I spent the majority of my time outside of school dancing ballet . . . on average about thirteen hours a week. My research paper for Dr. Johnson allowed me to examine my experience and the way in which it has shaped my own life and the lives of others who spent so much time as dancers.

"One of Dr. Johnson´s favorite metaphors was that of the 'double-edged sword,' and this metaphor applies to the experience of the adolescent dancer as much as any other example he used in class. For instance, I read articles and studies that examined the way ballet dancing encourages exercise and a healthy lifestyle. At the same time, dancers are among the adolescents at greatest risk for eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia because of the amount of time they spend in a leotard in front of a full length mirror comparing their changing bodies to those of others in their class with whom they compete for parts and costumes.

"Another example of the 'double-edged sword' is identity development and self-esteem. While dancers often have high self esteem, are high achievers, and develop their sense of identity around the unique fact that they are 'dancers,' at the same time, adolescent dancers can lose self-esteem when they don't receive a part they wanted, and they can lose a sense of individuality when they always appear in a corps of swans in the background.

"In addition to these 'double-edged sword' findings, I also spent time studying the psychological repercussions that dancing can have on the timing and experience of puberty, and I looked at injuries and how my own injury of a dislocating kneecap influenced my attitudes and experience as a dancer and adolescent. While this research paper was a lot of hard work, in the end, I found that it was an extremely rewarding experience that allowed me to analyze a major aspect of my own life and development and in turn learn more about myself."

Laura Michael remembers the major project in Child Psychology: "to choose any controversial topic dealing with children, research the topic, and write a paper explaining what we had found. We were also to conduct at least one interview with any expert on the subject, whether it be a mother, teacher, or psychologist, and include this information in the paper." As usual, Johnson offered students choices, and Michael says, "I had a hard time choosing--each seemed equally challenging yet equally interesting. One of my favorite things about Dr. Johnson's assignments was that although he set clear and demanding guidelines for the project, he still left much of it up to us. We were encouraged to choose a topic of interest to us and to have fun with it.

"I chose to research the effect of maternal employment on a child's development, " Michael says. "Since the decision to pursue a career or to stay at home with my children is one I may some day have to make, I thought I might learn something of value through this project. However, once I finished the paper, I found that I had learned more than I ever expected to. I learned about relationships and how what may seem like a few simple decisions can greatly affect the life of another human being."

Elizabeth Anderson also recalls an assignment from Child Psychology: "Dr. Johnson gave us several choices for what we could do for our major project in the class. Some of the options were to tutor children in the Success by Six program, write a research paper, or look at a novel and analyze it using some aspect of child psychology. Because I don't really like children and therefore did not want to tutor them, I decided to be thoroughly academic and take advantage of my English background
to write a paper on Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye.

"I had read the novel before in Women's Lit, but doing research on how racial prejudice and sexual molestation will affect a child's mind made The Bluest Eye mean that much more to me. Writing a psychology paper on a book that I'd read for an English class made me look at that novel and many others in a different way. I realized that one of the benefits of a liberal arts education is that I can take a wide variety of classes that will give me a much more well-rounded and complete education than if I had never set foot outside the English Department.

"In Adulthood and Aging," Anderson continues, "our big project was an interview that we were to conduct with someone from our parents' generation or older. There were many questions we were to ask, covering the entire life span with particular attention to how the interviewee perceived aging and was coping with issues such as retirement and the empty nest. I interviewed my father. Because he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis twenty years ago, I thought his life experiences and view of aging might be a little different than the average person's and therefore worthy of exploration.
"I was not disappointed. I was 'forced' to ask my father questions that wouldn't come up in ordinary conversation or topics I wouldn't ordinarily feel comfortable bringing up, such as how he has dealt mentally and emotionally with the physical problems that come along with MS, and as a result of this interview project I got to know
and understand my father much more fully than I had before.

"Though earlier in the semester I moaned and groaned about the pain of having to conduct an interview, organize it coherently, and insert class material where appropriate, afterwards I was appreciative not only because writing the paper helped me synthesize what we had learned in class but also because it strengthened my relationship with my father."

Beth Allen too says the interview assignment had the most impact on her life: "I remember being a little overwhelmed when Dr. Johnson made the assignment the first day of class. Not only did we have to write, but we had to establish interviewing skills, something that I had never been taught. Unlike many of the other members of my class, I do not have siblings that fit the age group allowed in the assignment; therefore, I had to interview a student I did not know well. The interview went well, mostly thanks to the questions Dr. Johnson provided us from the beginning. However, we had to create our own questions as well. To fulfill this assignment, I went through the text and developed questions from topics I was interested in.

"After completing the interview, I had the harder task of writing the paper. The hardest part for me was comparing what I learned in Adolescent Psychology with what the student said in the interview, wondering how I could include concepts
from the text to analyze the responses of the student. Students writing for Dr. Johnson were doomed to fail if they did not include knowledge from the class, one of the main objectives of most of his papers.

"One thing that I will never forget about Dr. Johnson's assignments was the emphasis on grammar. In fact, because so many people had problems with using hyphens, especially in relation to the phrase "eighteen-year-old," Dr. Johnson asked Mrs. Frey for help. After receiving her response, he e-mailed an outline of the proper use of hyphens to the entire class. At the time, I remember finding the situation humorous because I did not have the problem. However, I realized how important this information was, not only for the specific rule, but also for the importance of grammar this action instilled in the students."

Blended throughout these students' comments are some common themes. Integral to his courses, Johnson's writing assignments ensured that students relate course concepts to experiences in the world outside Presbyterian College. He engaged their interest by providing choices to allow personal connections. He encouraged them go beyond the campus to find human resources: experts by authority or just by age. He led them to find connections between course material and literature or the news. One of Johnson's most recent assignments was an analysis of one issue in child psychology as presented in articles from the New York Times, a state newspaper, and psychology journal articles.

What many students remember, however, is not the improved critical thinking and writing skills the assignments gave them. Rather they recall the relationships that grew out of tutoring a child for a semester or interviewing a parent or grandparent. Promoting and forming those relationships with students and colleagues is what made Eric Johnson special.