One of the first things you will see upon walking into Dr. Cheré Peguesse’s office in the Student Success Center is a large poster of Billie Holiday on the back wall with a line from her song, “Strange Fruit”: “Southern trees have strange fruit to bear…”
This dog-loving English teacher has been known to practice belly dancing for stress relief.
“I also meditate every Tuesday for at least an hour,” Dr. Peguesse says.
It is safe to say that Dr. Peguesse is not your average English professor.
“I’m very disorganized . . . I like to break the rules a little bit,” she says.
Dr. Peguesse likes to plan unconventional activities for her classes. Some previous activities include asking students to explain the origins of their names and arranging for her night classes to meet at Hildegard’s, a restaurant in downtown Valdosta.
One of the most interesting student name origins she has received was from a girl named Ever C. Goody.
“The C. stands for Charles,” Peguesse says, “and she’s a girl.”
According to Dr. Peguesse, the story was that that the girl’s father was unreachable until very near the moment of his daughter’s birth. As Ever’s father entered the delivery room, her mother exclaimed, “Charles Goody, I will love you forever.”
Another interesting experience for Dr. Peguesse was having a student removed from her class for writing violent journals involving the death of a certain “dark-haired, young English professor,” she says.
As for her classes, students can expect a professor who is easy to get along with, as long as they do their work.
“My biggest pet peeve with students is learned helplessness,” Peguesse explains. “If a student doesn’t get the answer she wants, she just gives up.”
Another thing that drives her crazy about students is that “they don’t read.”
Dr. Peguesse’s classes are hardly the average, boring grammar courses. She likes to have fun and encourages her students to do the same. She likes to make grammar interesting. As such, her classes vary depending on the students that she has each semester.