"It wasn't just that phrase but also other terms she used that felt as though she was talking like the Greasers. She said "savvy" often. A few days before we began reading the book, Mrs. Hughes told us she used to be a rebel in high school, back in the '60s. In my mind, she became a corollary of Hinton herself."
"I thought she'd coined the phrase until we read S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders as a class. It's right there on the fourth page of the book: 14-year-old narrator and protagonist Ponyboy Curtis is cornered by a group of Socs and scared stiff: "I stood there like a bump on a log while they surrounded me," he says, comparing himself to his Greaser friends who might have made a weapon of the trash around him."
Mrs. Hughes, an eighth-grade English teacher, repeatedly used vivid Greaser phrases and invited energetic classroom participation. She recited The Outsiders' opening line from memory and revealed a youthful rebellious past, which aligned her persona with the book's characters. She guided sustained close readings, teased the ending, and kept reluctant students engaged by promising the 1983 film. She encouraged committing favorite lines to memory and fostered affection for the characters and language. Her methods stoked curiosity, preserved class interest, and turned ordinary passages into memorable moments that inspired deep engagement with The Outsiders.
Read at Roger Ebert
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