‘She always was writing poetry’: Taylor Swift’s elementary school teacher on the pop star – whose 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, dropped this month
- The teacher who gave Taylor Swift her first singing solo during elementary school remembers that, as a little girl, the then future star was always writing poetry – ‘even in music class when she shouldn’t’
- Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department broke records on Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music, and the tortured poetess herself referenced Emily Dickinson during a 2022 award acceptance speech
Retired music teacher Barbara Kolvek – who taught Swift from first through fourth grade at Wyndcroft School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania – told CBS Philadelphia that she still remembers what the singer was like as a student.
“She always was writing poetry, always. Even in music class when she shouldn’t,” Kolvek said. “I did give her her very first singing solo. ‘Fast Talk Freddie,’ I believe it was called.”
Kolvek added that she and Swift had stayed in touch for a while after.
“I feel like maybe I gave her a little spark of encouragement to do what she was doing,” Kolvek said.
Kolvek’s support of creativity may have played a bigger part than she imagined. Creativity is one of the top skills a person needs to thrive in the workplace, per the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Report. According to the organisation’s estimates, building soft skills in children could contribute US$2.54 trillion to the global economy.