Instead of having their love of writing beaten out of them with pointless essay assignments, they should be learning all the parts of speech, what makes a good sentence, how to find the right word for the idea they want to express. Give them the building blocks of good writing. Teach them how to spell. Teach them how to construct sentences. Teach them where to put a freaking comma. How to effectively use a fragment. My experience is that when a kid learns these things, then later, like in middle school, when you teach them the basics of a good essay (a term I find an oxymoron, but more on that later) they’re able to run with it because they have the tools and materials, and thus the confidence to compose what they want to say.
And don’t start with essays. Start with creative writing while the kids aren’t afraid of being creative. Let them write about winged horses and talking mushrooms. Let them tell silly stories and learn early that writing can be fun, not a chore. Let them write about the things that interest them, the things they are naturally passionate about.
I homeschooled both my kids and didn’t assign essays to them when they were young. I let them write fun stuff, and didn’t critique those things at first. My kids both ended up writing long assignments on their own. Nick wrote pages and pages of a made-up diary, the story of a Minecraft character’s daily adventures, complete with characterization and voce. Anna put together a binder filled with information on hamsters, organized by topics like habitat and feeding, to show that she was ready to have a hamster as a pet.
Maybe, you say, they just inherited my natural ability to write. Hm, well, that could contribute to it. But I never felt like a natural writer. I didn’t start creative writing until I was in my thirties. And here is the “later” I mentioned before regarding essays: when I started writing for publication, I had to unlearn all the essay-writing procedure that had been drilled into my head in school. I mean, when is the last time you picked up any kind of published nonfiction work and it read like an essay that you were forced to write in school?
This blog post even – does this sound like an essay? I’ve got a main point. I’m backing it up with details. But am I writing it like that horrid, strict format we were all taught? If I were, you would have clicked over to something else by now.
Okay, time to get off my soap box and get ready for work, where I have to try and teach kids who don’t know what a preposition is, who don’t know how to punctuate, who can’t spell to save their lives – not because they aren’t smart, but because it’s not stressed in school and they’re spending their time writing essays on tedious topics that they absolutely dread.
Before I go...just a bit on my absence here. I'm fully aware I've neglected this blog a long time. I haven't been writing as much for years, and I've even slacked on art lately. My focus has shifted to my physical health, and I've been spending a lot of time educating myself about metabolism (short version: I was prediabetic and had other out-of-balance metabolic markers, but that's corrected now by food and exercise). Because of the changes, I have much more energy now and am finding myself wanting to write again and even pop over here and share. So, yeah, even though this has been primarily a writing and art blog, I may start posting a bit about what I've learned regarding health (and like today, maybe more thoughts on teaching/tutoring), if for no other reason than needing a place to talk about it. I also promise to keep up with any news on my writing and art.
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