Darby Sanders is one of the easy-going writing professors at SCAD Atlanta. He is a part of a group of four writing teachers who divide up the English, journalism and creative writing classes taught at Ivy Hall. A Georgia native, Professor Sanders is a family man with three daughters, including twin girls that run him wild. His students know him well for his crazy, autobiographical stories—like the time his plane almost fell out of the sky, or the time he was held at gunpoint on the Boston subway—and his drive for pushing students to make their best better during and after SCAD.
Photo courtesy of Cole Seidner.
Cole Seidner: How long ago did you start working at SCAD?
Darby Sanders: I started at SCAD part-time six years ago this January, then I went full-time as of this fall.
CS: What inspires you, being here at SCAD?
DS: This is my fourth place that I’ve taught at. I taught at the University of Houston, I’ve taught at Salem College, and I’ve taught at several community colleges. By far this is the most creative place I’ve ever taught at. By far, by leaps and bounds. Whether it’s an art student, or a photography student, or a graphic design student, or a sequential art student, or a writing student; the students here are very, very creative, and I can’t stress that enough. It’s just not the same at other schools. At Salem or Houston, the creative kid would be one in twenty. And here it’s nineteen out of twenty. Most of the kids here think differently and for a writer, that’s cool. You go into a room, and you want creativity. You want people to express themselves differently than all the other people around them. I take any class, and there are twenty different, distinct students in that classroom. When I taught in other schools, it’s just not that way. So that part is cool. It’s challenging, it’s one of the more challenging places I’ve ever taught at, because you can’t have a one-size-fits-all teaching style or method. And you have to be more personal. You can’t be the anonymous teacher. In terms of rewarding—much more rewarding. It’s a very creative place.
CS: You mentioned teaching at other places, have you always wanted to be a professor?
DS: Yes. I’ve always wanted to teach, from the time I was a kid. I’ve always wanted to be involved in writing. So I’ve always wanted to write, and teach, and do something creative. And that’s not true of all writers, some writers just want to go off to a bar, and write their novel, and live off their $10,000 a year, mooch off their girlfriend or whatever. But I’ve always wanted to be in the writing community. I’ve always wanted to be around other writers, and I’ve always wanted to be in an academic environment because you get to read all the time, you get to meet creative people. I think even in high school, I wanted to be a teacher because I liked thinking about all that stuff all the time. Whether I was going to be a best seller novelist, or I’d ever publish a story, I wanted to be close to that.
CS: So why did you apply to work here at SCAD?
DS: I was writing and producing multimedia for public broadcasting. It was a great full-time job, I had it for about a year, but I’d always taught part-time for the previous seven or eight years. They posted an advertisement for a part-time adjunct teacher in writing, someone who could do multimedia stuff and teach new media. And I was like, “wow, that’s me. I can do that.” I’ve had these two careers in new media and in writing, and in teaching. Actually, I forgot to apply. The deadline went past, and then like a month later I was like “ooh.” I was going to do that, I could teach a couple classes, make a little extra money. I had twins on the way. It would be nice to have a little extra cash. So I applied anyway, I sent the chair a letter, and said “hey, is there any chance this job is still open? I’d really like this job” and she said, “no.” “No, it’s closed, we’ve hired somebody” and I wrote her off. And then a little while later, she called me back, and said, “actually, we have one class, would you like to teach one class?” I was interested, and that’s how it started, and later they offered me a full-time job.
CS: What is your favorite memory from working here?
DS: Last year, there was a group of five or six students who I met when I started teaching, who I had in many, many classes, who I just liked a whole lot. You don’t like every student you have. But the ones you like, you work with. You learn about them in nonfiction, you learn more about them in fiction; you just learn about them. You get close to them. So talking to those guys, in a group, personally, when I knew they were going to graduate, that was great. Just seeing them off, seeing them graduate was great, because one girl I saw in my comp class, and I said, “hey you’re really good at this.” Now she’s working in New York as a writer. So to see that happen, as a teacher that’s cool.
CS: So a sense of pride?
DS: Pride is a weird word. Sense of accomplishment.
CS: So you’re a family man. Is it hard juggling both family and working as a professor?
DS: Yes, very difficult. It’s not because of SCAD. My wife works full-time, I work full-time, any time you have two parents working full-time with three kids, you’re going to get tired. You get off work at whenever that is, two in the afternoon or eight at night, you go home and there’s a bunch of little kids, and you’re like, “I love you, but my god. I need to sit down, and relax, or watch some cheesy reality TV.” And you can’t. It’s like having another job. It can be challenging, yeah.
CS: How do you relax?
DS: I can’t say that on campus! No, I’m kidding. How do I relax? I’d like to say I read, because I love to read, but during the quarter, I’m going to watch True Detective. I’m going to watch Stephen Colbert. I’m going to watch something that makes me laugh.
CS: What is something that you want your students to learn from you, specifically?
DS: I think I want them to learn—can I say two things?
CS: Yeah.
DS: Number one, learn to think critically, about anything they encounter. Anything they watch. Anything they read. Learn to think critically. Because so many people don’t. So many people just take in everything that’s thrown at them and I think part of college is to learn to think critically. Most people come into it not being critical thinkers. Number two, is that if you work hard, you can write something amazing.