Examiner column for March 11.
The past four columns have outlined ways students’ educations, both public and private, can be improved by preparing for Advanced Placement tests in high school. AP prep automatically forces a curriculum to focus on critical thinking instead of rote memorization. And it’s not expensive to train teachers to deliver this high-quality instruction, even as early as elementary school.
But a father’s email reminded me that reading and analysis are only part of the solution. Writing is the rest. If children don’t love to write, and haven’t been guided to appreciate the craft of writing, why should they be inspired to read?
Nearly all criticism of public education focuses on low standards of reading and writing, lack of critical thinking, and preparation for tests that measure short-term memory rather than long-term love of learning. Both the AP program and the National Writing Project address the big educational picture, rather than the narrow goal of test achievement.
For me, writing was a chore—as it is for most of us—until I attended the Northern Virginia Writing Project. Simply putting pencil to paper, then reading those scribbles in a group, facilitated an appreciation of the written word that has informed my own writing, my reading, and my teaching. Understanding that writing is hard, not easy, and that it helps focus our thoughts and experiences were insights that permanently changed the way I look at language. As a result of the Writing Project, I understand what it is to be part of a community of writers.
That brings me back to the father’s email. His first grader doesn’t write much in school, so he has been asking his son to keep a twice-weekly journal at home. He wonders why elementary schools don’t do more writing with their students.
The answer is that teachers don’t often recognize the value of a writing community. The classroom should be a safe and creative haven for the flow of words, but most teachers don’t have the training to create a classroom of writers. Devoting even a half hour a day to journal writing, or writing about a snowflake, or an animal in the news, will spur children to look forward to writing and hearing another’s words read aloud.
Something that always surprised me with high school students was their reluctance to read aloud what they’d written. They wanted to use their writing as “talking points.” “It’s not very good,” they’d say in apology. Since when have talking points held an audience’s attention the way words, framed exactly as written, hold our attention? Yet I always needed to remind them to read aloud what they’d actually written, without apologizing. They had never before been part of a writing community.
AP or IB training, and Writing Project training, will elevate the educational level of our schools at very little cost. Ask if your child’s school has any teachers who are Writing Project Consultants. The question alone might spur a principal to encourage teachers—of all disciplines--to unlock that inner writer. I promise your children will benefit even more than their teachers. Next week I’ll look at the magic of good writing assignments.
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