Preventing AIDS in rural men

After her husband died, Susan Swetnam began morning meditations, focused on Catholic saints, to quiet her mind before work.

The ISU English professor discovered in this period that the lives of saints were more than just spiritually relevant. She found the saints also offered lessons for her as an educator. Swetnam’s recently released book, “My Best Teachers Were Saints: What Every Educator Can Learn from the Heroes of the Church,” was a project of passion stemming from her long fascination with Catholic saints and her desire to contribute to the field of teaching.

Narrowing down the vast list of Catholic saints to 52 — one to represent every week of the year — Swetnam provides a brief biography of each saint and writes a companion essay on how that saint exemplifies various aspects of her teaching philosophy.
“It was a great experience doing research for this book,” Swetnam said. “Thanks to a grant from the ISU Office of Research, I spent time in the largest Catholic University libraries including Gonzaga, Loyola, and DePaul. I had to wade through often conflicting information on each saint, as well as learn about the time and place during which each saint lived.”

From November 2005 to January 2006, Swetnam would return home after work and spend hours reflecting and writing about her experiences as a teacher and faculty member. During this time, she revised the book two times.
“That was a wonderful time in my life,” Swetnam said. “I felt very in-tune with what I was doing — I’d have dreams about saints, phrases would pop into my head all the time, books would open to the right page. It’s amazing what happens when you’re in that heightened state of receptivity.”

Swetnam also carefully reflected on her roles as an experienced educator, Catholic, and writer.
“I’m typically very private about my spiritual life, and it felt risky to write what are basically little homilies or pieces of advice,” Swetnam said. “I went through the process of wondering, ‘Who am I to say all this?’ or whether I’d sound too pious because I intended the book to have a vast appeal.”

Swetnam’s essays in “My Best Teachers Were Saints” loosely addresses three main challenges teachers face — challenges with students, one’s own inner life as an educator, and issues with other teachers and administrators. The book is organized according to the saints’ feast days, and can serve as a weekly meditation resource or be read cover-to-cover.
“My late husband, Ford, is all over this book as a voice of common sense and best practice,” Swetnam said. “The stories of the saints have a lot to teach an educator about such issues as well as how to deal with difficult or talented students, how to maintain intellectual curiosity and how to negotiate departmental issues.

For example, the story of St. Peter and St. Paul can help one maintain idealism when a department meeting has erupted into a firestorm.”
While the book is being marketed to teachers by Catholic-oriented Loyola Press, Swetnam believes the book might also be useful to those who are neither Catholic nor necessarily teachers.

In her introduction, Swetnam emphasizes the concept of mentoring, and writes, “One doesn’t have to be Catholic to appreciate the rich paradigms that saints’ lives offer; one doesn’t have to believe, even, that all of the personalities chronicled actually existed. One simply has to believe in the power of stories.”
Sitting in her office with a box of newly printed books, Swetnam described having moments of doubt during the writing process.

“The first 13 saints were easy to write about, but there were times when I was worried whether I had the creativity to take the book all the way to the end,” she said. “But I tell my students to write through and not avoid those feelings of doubt, so that’s what I did. I’m excited to see the response to this book.”