Carol Henderson cannot remember a time when she was not writing — a passion she inherited from her mother.
“She taught me my ‘ABCs’ and ‘123s’ long before I went to first grade, as there was no Kindergarten back in the dark ages,” Henderson said. “She just taught me to love writing, so I went to school and decided to become an English teacher as a junior or senior in high school.”
Henderson said she was inspired by her mother and English teachers and has spent many years teaching in a variety of places to different ages groups and has spent the last four at the Pioneer Center in Weatherford.
“It is the best venue I have ever taught in because everyone wants to be there. It’s voluntary,” Henderson said. “There are no (mandatory) assignments and no grades. Our joke is ‘And if you don’t do it, you get an F.’”
She has been a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Tulsa and Central Arkansas University while working toward her master’s degree. She also taught at the Western Technology Center and Weatherford High School. Her longest stints have been teaching part-time at SWOSU before working with disability services for 26 years.
Henderson taught remedial English as well as introductory courses during her stint as SWOSU. She said her favorite part of the job was watching students bloom and grow.
“In the remedial class, there would be students who had never done well, didn’t study hard and didn’t like it,” she said. “Then there were others who just blossomed. This was their first chance to write something they really cared about.”
Henderson began teaching at the Pioneer Center after Director Callie Waldrop invited her to host a class for a month, and she has been there for the past 4 years. Henderson and Waldrop have been friends for the past 22 years after Waldrop attended Henderson’s class at WTC.
“At the Pioneer Center, there are people who have not written very much before, but now they are retired and suddenly have to devote to it and they have blossomed,” Henderson said. “It’s a very nice thing to watch.”
She has a small class which ranges from 4-15 members, which includes a core group of four. She also has three generations of women attending her class, which she loves.
Besides teaching, Henderson also enjoys personal writing. She said her favorite kind of writing is short pieces of fiction, poetry and personal letters, which are a particular favorite. Henderson has several poems which have been published in various compilations.