Lisa VanDamme

Literature
Founder of VDA

Tell me a little about your personal background.
I was born in Texas, my father’s home turf, where I lived through 6th grade. Then I moved to New York, where my mother grew up, and it was there that I spent my junior high and high school years. I like to think both worlds, and both sides of my family, are reflected in me - and in VanDamme Academy. From my East Coast family I learned a respect for old-world dignity. From the Southerners, I learned to take pride in being “the tightest hugger in Texas.” And from both, I learned to deeply value education. Dignity, warmth, and reverence for education are all qualities that characterize this school. 

When and why did you decide to become a teacher? 
I went to college with no idea what I wanted to be when I grew up, and no family pressure to decide. In the first semester of my freshman year, I took a philosophy class, and that was that - I declared my major in philosophy immediately. I loved the grand-scale, broadly-integrating perspective that philosophy took on the world. For a time, I thought I would seek a PhD in philosophy so that I could teach at the college level. But the more time I spent philosophy departments, the more disillusioned I became. I was interested in the big questions for the practical, real-life answers they would provide; instead, those questions were being treated like pointless, ivory tower, intellectual games. So, I decided to become a literature teacher, thinking I would be able to teach the material of philosophy through literature. That is exactly what I do. 

If you specialize in a particular subject area, why did you choose that specialty?
I teach literature because I love being witness to the power of books to expand a child’s spiritual horizons. Having read dozens and dozens of high quality books with grand ideas, inspirational characters, psychological insights, and experiences utterly outside the ordinary and everyday, our students develop a thoughtfulness and wisdom unique to those who read great literature. From Ibsen’s “A Doll’s House,” to Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” to Hugo’s “Ninety-Three” and more, I have settled upon a list of works that I think are positively soul-forming, and that my students love. I never tire of teaching them, and of seeing, again and again, their lasting impact.  

Do you have any favorite stories about your teaching experience? 
I love what I do so much that I feel like I have a new favorite experience every week. I love when my students continue their own discussion of the book after class has ended. I love when they ask to keep their copy of the book as a memento or because they are going to make a family member read it too. I love when they are moved to tears by something we read. I love when the make insightful connections among disparate works. One of my favorite experiences of all was receiving a letter from a graduate, in which he beautifully expressed a thought not uncommon to VanDamme Academy students: “I could not be who I am, and I am proud of who I am, without you. Literature has given me a new sense of individual identity and self-worth. For all of this, I cannot thank you enough.”

What do you like to do in your free time? 
I love traveling to the English countryside and have started spending part of the summer in the Cotswolds. A few years ago I created an app called “Read With Me” to help adults connect intellectually and emotionally with the classics. Most of all, I love spending time with my family.

Do you have children of your own? 
I’ll say! Sometimes I say I have four children, and sometimes, because they are so far apart in age, I say that I had two children twice. They are a daily source of joy, inspiration, and entertainment. Two have graduated from VanDamme Academy, and they treasure the experiences and the education they received. I am currently watching the other two enjoying their VanDamme Academy journey. 

Is there anything else you think parents or prospective parents should know about you? 
I love my job. I call VanDamme Academy my “cultural oasis,” because whatever frustrations or disappointments I might have with the world around me, they vanish when I walk through the school’s doors. It is a beautiful place to be, and I am grateful for it every day.