By Julianna Parker

Transcript Staff Writer

James Yoch loves to help things grow — whether that’s students or flowers.

The University of Oklahoma English professor has a similar philosophy for the two diverse loves in his life. As he pointed out one of the plants growing in his back yard, he drew the connection.

“It blooms better let free,” he said. “And I think students do better let free.”

Yoch will receive the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence for the university level at the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence’s 22nd annual Academic Awards Banquet Saturday in Tulsa.

Yoch has taught Renaissance literature at OU for 44 years. His research has focused on the meaning of gardens in the Renaissance. This explains his fascination with gardens, but perhaps not enough to indicate the level of dedication he has to his own.

His garden covers his front and back yards at the two yellow houses he uses as his home and studio in east Norman. Greenery shoots out of every nook and cranny and roses dot the landscape.

When he moved there about 30 years ago, Yoch said his back yard was entirely bare, with only a band of flowers skirting the chain link fence.

“When you stepped out the door, you understood everything totally,” he said. Now, the yard is divided by paths and hedges and shrubs, creating more interest.

When the reporter lost track of the path back to the studio, Yoch declared his garden a success.

“Now that is a good plot, because you’re kind of lost,” he said.

Gardens have plots and scenes just like plays, he said. People in the Renaissance — including Shakespeare — felt gardens had great meaning and would create stories and hide secrets with gardens.

Understanding this scenery helps Renaissance theater make sense, Yoch said. Another thing that makes theater more understandable is seeing it acted out, he said.

So instead of just reading plays, his students act them out. This helps them “learn by doing,” Yoch said.

Students seem to enjoy that.

“I can’t recommend him highly enough,” said Brandi Paschal, an English senior who took Yoch’s Shakespearean comedy class in the fall and his background to Renaissance literature class this spring. “I think he’s a wonderful teacher — by far I’ve had the most enjoyable experience with him.”

Paschal said she was able to interact with her classmates, which was good because she is a shy person. She said Yoch is respectful and encouraging.

“He just loves plays,” she said. “He loves to see things performed. He says he learns things every time he sees them.”

That fresh perspective is infectious, said Sandra Sabin, a psychology junior who took Yoch’s Renaissance class this semester as an elective.

“He’s a really fun person,” she said of Yoch. “He makes you get really excited about whatever you’re talking about.” His sense of humor infects even mundane conversations about the weather, she said.

“So the whole time you’re talking about the weather, you’re smiling from ear to ear,” Sabin said.

Sabin said she was initially intimidated by Yoch’s class when she learned they were to read 11 books in 16 weeks.

“You get a little scared,” she said, “especially when you find out that they’re all really old books.”

But Sabin learned to enjoy the old literature as she and her classmates read out loud and acted out the texts.

As a final project, Yoch gives students the option either to write a critical paper about a play, act out a play in a group or use the plays to create a modern television script.

Sabin wrote a script for E.R. based on Ovid’s “Metamorphosis.” That process helped her understand the stories much better.

“It made me see it’s not as outdated as a lot of people think,” Sabin said.

Yoch’s final project is another example of his unconventional approach to teaching. He wants to keep students from being passive, so they will be active participants in democracy.

“I’m glad to see people be creative and discover their own voice,” he said.

And Yoch carries that passion of the creative process into other areas of his life as well.

Shane Friese, who works with Yoch on landscape design, said Yoch is “always curious.”

“He just constantly challenges himself to explore different things,” Friese said.

This love for discovery is another reason he won’t let his students just sit and take notes and parrot his own words back on tests.

“What I’m most interested in is seeing students be creative … the thing they cannot say in my class is what I said,” Yoch said.

Julianna Parker366-3541jparker@normantranscript.com