Featured Teachers: PJ Liebson
Get to know some of our teachers through the Proust Questionnaire, liberally adapted from French writer Marcel Proust (1871–1922).
PJ Liebson teaches English and history. She has taught off and on for 18 years and has taught at St. Mike’s for one year.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A cowgirl.
What is your favorite animal?
A horse, of course!
What is your favorite color?
Red.
What is your most marked characteristic?
Imagination.
What do you think are your greatest faults?
Lumpy mashed potatoes.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A good book.
Who are your favorite writers or poets?
Rilke and Yeats.
Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
Matty Madrid, there heroine if my own (PJ Grady’s) mystery series.
Who are your favorite characters in history?
Socrates, St. Joan, Jean Moulin—people willing to die for their beliefs.
Who are your heroes in real life?
I believe every woman must become her own hero.
What quality do you most admire in people?
Originality.
Where would you most like to travel?
London.
If you had not become a teacher, what would you have like to have done instead?
Become an illustrator of children’s books.
What do you most value in friends?
Their support in good times and bad. I am so blessed in my friends.
What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
The loss of a child.
What is your favorite word?
Effervescence.
What is your greatest pet peeve?
People who boast about how little they know.
What natural gift would you most like to possess?
Ambidexterity.
What is your motto?
“He who reaches for a star leaps higher than he who stoops for a penny in the mud.”
What is your present state of mind?
Hopeful.