Douglas Stewart

You can leave if you want to.

And so my year of about 300 kids went down to only 12 kids.

And I found myself one of only 12 kids remaining in my year who were going to finish high school, who were then going to go on to college, hopefully.

And I found myself in an English class where I was the only student

It was just me and two English teachers, Mr. Arthur and Mr. Archibald.

And suddenly they had eight hours a week with a student who was trying to pay attention, who was trying to understand how to read, not just get through the exams, but trying to learn how to digest books and how to take in all their meaning.

And I tell you this because I suddenly realized at 16, 17, I would love to be a writer.

I would love to study English literature.

And that just wasn't going to be possible for me.

I was a working class boy that grew up in a neighborhood of great deprivation.

And I think my teachers, rather than turning me away from English, turned me towards something that I could make a living at.

Well, you know, it was wonderful to be around people who had this passion for a thing and they invested that passion in you.

But they saw that I couldn't go on to compete and study English literature at a university level.

They, you know, I would have to be competing with children that would ultimately go to Oxford and Cambridge.

And, you know, they had spent their whole lives, their whole, all their youth around books.

And I just didn't have that.

And so instead, they guided me towards textiles without me really knowing what textiles was.

But they saw a kid that wasn't really great academically, but that wanted to achieve something, someone who was creative and artistic, but needed to do something that ultimately you could find employment on the far side of.

And so I went to a very traditional textile school and I was a weaver for a year.

They let you sample all kinds of textiles.