Professor Project: Joey Horstman
Bethel University English professor Joey Horstman enjoys sharing his love of writing with his students through teaching classes on film, literature, as well as leading them on the England term trip.
By Mady Fortier | Journalist
Bethel University English professor Joey Horstman teaches through the lens of a true love of the subject. He displays his passion for literature by sharing personal experience with the students. Horstman has been on the England term trip twice, and often mentions this trip while he teaches. He emphasizes the importance of critically and carefully reading a text, as books have always seemed magical to him. Reading and writing have brought him epiphanies and opportunities in his own and those of his students.
Why Bethel?
“It was about midway through the first day of interviews, it was a two-day process, where I thought this is exactly the place where I want to be. It was for a number of reasons: 1. The English professors are fantastic. We have a great department, and they’re fun and interesting and everyone’s a writer … I really liked that and I taught a class and really liked the students. They were engaged, they were interested … so that’s why I came and that’s really why I’ve stayed.”
“There’s no distinguishing one course from another while you’re over there, everything is the classroom. And you get to see a castle everyday.”
What was one success or failure in your career?
“The biggest success has been the two times I’ve led England term … that’s the way to teach. There’s no distinguishing one course from another while you’re over there, everything is the classroom. And you get to see a castle everyday.
“The greatest failures … probably on England term as well … Little things always go wrong.”
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
“I think right now at this time in my life it would be … I have to pick two, one is just to be able to read faster and remember more, and have a brain that works faster that it does now … But then two, because I’m also at a certain age I would like my body to feel young again. It doesn’t even have to be stronger or faster or anything like that, just not to creak so much.
What is your most embarrassing teaching story?
“In the HC classroom there was a big chalkboard, it wasn’t attached to the wall it was on rollers, and you would write on one side and then turn it over and you could write on the other side. And in trying to turn it over it fell on me.”
What is the best advice you’ve ever been given?
“I think it would be along the lines of love what you do, fall in love with what you do. I think that’s it.”
What do you love about Bethel?
“I would start with the English department. My colleagues, were all very different in personality and approach to literature and approach to teaching. I think we play off each other really well. I think English majors will connect with someone in the department because we’re all so different and I like that. I like the energy that it brings, I like that everybody writes and appreciates writing … And appreciates good teaching. I love the classes that I teach.”
“And I think Bethel sometimes coddles students too much or protects them. We’re sort of cut off here from the big bad city with the moat around this school.”
What is one critique you have of Bethel’s student community?
“I think there’s a tendency at Bethel to … to not be as independent. You’re not pushed to be an adult, to be independent. I think that’s one of the reasons I love England term is because students have to be independent as well and they learn that they can do that. And I think Bethel sometimes coddles students too much or protects them. We’re sort of cut off here from the big bad city with the moat around this school. As well as even things like the lifestyle statement does that. That we’re gonna tell you the rules that you have to live by. And I think some students get stuck in that.”
What is the best moment you’ve had in your time at Bethel?
“There have been a couple lectures that I’ve given that just, you can tell when things are working, when students get something. There have been times in writer’s workshops where you’re editing someone’s paper and you say something, and you can see their light up, that “oh, that’s what the problem is.” I go back to England term because that was such a great experience. There were plays that we went to that just took my breath away, and talking to the students afterward and seeing their enthusiasm for it.”
If you weren’t a professor, what would you do as an occupation?
“I have no idea. If I wasn’t a professor I would probably be a high school teacher and coach. That’s what I was heading for before I went to graduate school. I would’ve coached wrestling and baseball.”
Who or what has influenced you the most?
“I would have to pick parents and my older brother, but there were four professors, two as an undergraduate and two in graduate school … that influenced at least how I think. Influenced me first to become an English major and then go to graduate school. The first one, I’ll just talk about him, because we’re still friends. I was fascinated by him and the way he could think, as well as his body of knowledge, but I knew that was just a matter of age. It was the way that he thought, the way that he could critique a poem or a story and tie it into the culture that I was fascinated by.”
What got you interesting in English?
“I’m not sure. I grew up reading and thinking that books were magical. I grew up in a home that didn’t have any books in it at all, we had the Bible and that was pretty much it. For some reason, and I don’t know why, because no one else in my family did, I loved to read and loved storybooks. There was one little bookstore in town and I would save my paper route money, and it was magical going in there, and I would just pick a book looking at its cover. No one was guiding me “read this, don’t read that.”
Who is your favorite author/inspiration.
“There’s so many, I’ll name a couple. Frederick Buechner … I write nothing like him, I wish I did. He’s a novelist, essayist, memoirist and minister … Don Delillo has written my favorite novel of all time … Actually, I should put it this way … in Brit Lit II, if you ask me who my favorite poet is, it tends to be the poet that we are reading at the time.”
“And every once in a while a student of mine will have the same experience that I had as an undergraduate where the whole world kind of opens up and they not only grow up but they see more and can experience more and think more.”
What do you love about teaching English?
“Because you’re just sharing stuff that you love … And at least part of every class you’re trying to get them to fall in love with some of the stuff. You won’t love it all, but it is a kind of love affair. To be able to show people really cool stuff is just a privilege and a joy. I love doing that … And every once in a while a student of mine will have the same experience that I had as an undergraduate where the whole world kind of opens up and they not only grow up but they see more and can experience more and think more. So that’s the fun of it.”
