Oh, for the love of writing!



The other day, Megan, my college roommate, and I were chatting about whatever school-related topic jumped into our brains. We tossed around ideas about how to turn on reluctant students to reading and writing when she said, “Kids see writing as punishment.”

As I dusted off my despair at her exclamation, I knew that I had no choice but to agree with her. More often than not, by the time students swing open the doors to middle school their desire to express their thoughts on paper has been squashed. Compulsory insipid prompts, micromanaged writing formats and feelings of failure caused by minute line-by-line edits are three of the causes.

In the movie Finding Forrester, Sean Connery’s character, William Forrester, shared his philosophy on writing with Jamal Wallace who was struggling to create his opening free-writing sentence when he said, “First write from the heart, then from the head”. Those few words that I paraphrased became my classroom mantra every year, every time my students wrote, be it free writing or an assignment, and every time they wrestled with pulling out those thoughts and ideas, wedged like impacted wisdom teeth in the crevices of their brains.

Although the How Students Say It (spelling, grammar and usage, punctuation, sentence structure, etc.) is quite important, it should be secondary to the What They Say. Writers will always have time to clarify, focus and spellcheck their thoughts, but they have to get them on paper, first.

Writing is a way for children to show ownership of their thoughts, their ideas, and their own

unique voices. 

Students should not smother writing from the heart with the misconception that finely-honed writing skills are so important than ideas.

Students’ writing proficiency and the underlying bureaucratic threat behind their not reaching this benchmark should not become the means and the end to writing lessons.

Students should not be told, “No that isn’t right,” because their thoughts differ from their teachers' interpretations.

Instead, teachers should instill confidence in their students:

by explaining that every opportunity they have to express their thoughts and ideas in their pieces, they will learn what works and what doesn't.

by offered a minimum of six choices as well as a choose-your-own-topic option for every analytic writing.

by focusing their editing on three to four content and grammar areas only, not every single misplaced comma, misspelled word, etc.

by answering questions about the length with words such as, "Write until you have fully explained your idea."

(Note: a minimum length should be required, but never a maximum. Teachers may address students writing verbosity during conferences.)

Whether in the classroom or at home, children need to write for fun. When they enjoy writing, students will increase their proficiency, thereby meeting academic benchmarks. They can create Madlibs, write scripts for ICarly, Victorious, or Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide to act out, or pretend they are on ESPN and prepare, perform and record interviews or sports commentaries. They can create song lyrics and write in journals that they are confident will be read by their eyes only. They can combine drawing and painting with writing by creating storybooks that they share with neighborhood children or at local libraries during book reading times.

Are they stuck on Downton Abbey or another television show? If so, parents, ask their children open-ended questions that would generate a discussion about plot, characters, filming techniques, and casting, just to name a few conversation starters. Why talk about a TV program? Because with every tête-à-tête, young people are learning how to express their thoughts clearly. They will remember this and use these same techniques when they have to write a critique or an analysis of a literary piece.

This will ward off the Dreaded Literary Demons, too. If academic dialogs evolve from engaging discussions where students and teachers reveal elements that intrigue them or where they feel free to explain why the author’s words move them or how they create word pictures, students will learn how to write with the same passion and technical prowess that they use verbally. They will develop the faith that they can proficiently identify and evaluate, in writing, examples of themes, figurative language, or any other literary facet they may be asked to explain.

Young adults should not be forced on the prison march of writing about a topic for which

they have virtually no feeling. They should not be mandated to format their thoughts into five paragraphs only, or ordered to copy, “I will not…” sentences in their notebooks 500 times. They should not be required to complete essay quizzes as a penalty because teachers are miffed that they aren’t responding in class discussions or not completing the reading assignments. They should not face overly-edited papers that make them cringe instead of conjuring up an, “I can do this" attitude in their minds for the next writing mission.

Oh, for the love of writing:

Children should be given a multitude of chances to write from the heart without worrying about being told their ideas are wrong, their writing style has no style, or their spelling is atrocious.

Children should be allowed to feel the flush of excitement when they string plain words into Kodak moment word pictures.

Children should be allowed to hold onto that love for writing they had when they were eight and the thoughts bubbled from the word fountain in their souls so they can open the floodgates to this very same passion when they are eighteen.

Oh, for the love of writing.

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Best,