Welcome to the first Hot Seat of the year. For this issue, I interviewed Ms. Milligan, so let’s get started! I started with a simple question:
Why did you begin teaching?
“When I was studying my masters, which I did at St. Andrews university in Scotland, in Women, Writing and Gender, and you know as a poor student, I had to earn some money! So, I started tutoring and I tutored some secondary students just on the side, not thinking anything would come of it. I loved it so much! I loved talking to students about books and stories and in the end, I loved it more than academia so I ended up becoming a teacher!”
“Wow, that’s cool! But what if you weren’t a teacher what would you be doing?”
“Oh, it’s such a difficult one! For a long time, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I loved art, I loved sewing. One Christmas, my grandparents gave me a sewing machine. I made dresses and things like that, so for a long time, that’s what I wanted to do. But I think now as a grown-up, if I wasn’t teaching, I would probably be working with animals.
“Do you still make stuff?”
“Yeah, sometimes but I don’t make clothes anymore. I have learned embroidery during lockdown so I make little embroidery portraits in the circle frame.”
“It’s good that you had something to do during the lockdown.”
What were you like in school?
“So I don’t know if it was predictable but I was a very good child in school, I was a bit of a goody-two-shoes! I was very very quiet, like painfully shy and I worked hard at home. I moved around a lot as a kid, so I always had to make new friends and as you get older, it becomes more difficult, so I ended up having a lot of time on my own and used that to do my school work. It sounds really sad but it worked out well for me. I got good grades!”
Have you liked working at KIS?
“Yes, I have! It’s been so different from what I thought it would be but so wonderful at the same time, I adore my students. They’ve all got something special about them, that makes them unique, that makes them interesting, that makes them fun to talk to! I have loved it here. I’m loving getting involved in the student newspaper this year, getting to meet more students whom I don’t teach!”
-Keira Gross
Last but not least, it was an exciting experience to be able to interview Ms Milligan and gain an insight on her opinions and past. I want to say thank you to Ms. Milligan for taking the hot seat on this issue! Now, who will be up next?
