Writing Is More Than Just Self-Expression
Educator and writer Robert Pondiscio has some sharp words for the the way writing is often presented to children—as an opportunity to “express themselves,” as something they can just do, not something they have to learn:
“But good writers don’t just do stuff. They know stuff. They have knowledge of the world that enlivens their prose and provides the ability to create examples and analogies. They have big vocabularies and solid command of the conventions of language and grammar. And if this is not explicitly taught, it will rarely develop by osmosis among children who do not grow up in language-rich homes.
. . . This leaves exactly two options: The first is to de-emphasize spelling and grammar. The other is to teach spelling and grammar. But at too many schools, it’s more important for a child to unburden her 10-year-old soul writing personal essays about the day she went to the hospital, dropped an ice cream cone on a sidewalk, or shopped for new sneakers. It’s more important to write a ‘personal response’ to literature than engage with the content. This is supposed to be ‘authentic’ writing. There is nothing inherently inauthentic about research papers and English essays.
Earlier this year, David Coleman, the principal architect of the widely adopted Common Core Standards, infamously told a group of educators, ‘As you grow up in this world, you realize people really don’t give a shit about what you feel or what you think.’ His bluntness made me wince, but his impulse is correct. We have overvalued personal expression . . . The pendulum has swung too far.
Far from imposing a cultural norm or orthodoxy–silencing their stories and compromising their authentic voice–teaching disadvantaged children the mechanics of writing, and emphasizing evidence over anecdote, is liberating not constraining. Teaching grammar, vocabulary. and mechanics to low-income black and Hispanic students is giving them access to what Lisa Delpit, an African-American educator and a critic of progressive education methods, famously called the ‘culture of power.’
Let me hasten to add that there should be no war between expressive writing and explicit teaching of grammar and mechanics. It’s not an either/or proposition. Kids are more likely to become engaged, thoughtful writers if they feel comfortable and competent with language. But at present, we expend too much effort trying to get children to’live the writerly life’ and ‘develop a lifelong love of reading.’
You’re not going to get to any of those laudable goals without knowledge, skills, and competence.
For every kid who has had his creative spark dimmed by ‘paint-by-numbers’ writing instruction, there are almost certainly 10 more who never developed that creative spark because they grew up believing they can’t write and never learned to adequately express themselves.” Read more here.
Robert is right—creativity springs from a mastery of the fundamentals, and we cheat students when we don’t teach them the fundamentals in a rigorous way.
Once again AMP is spot on – from my POV we could substitute ‘musician’ for writer and the entire piece still makes sense. In the end there really aren’t shortcuts are there? To play music and to understand music are 2 different concepts – and recently too much emphasis has been put on the ‘playing’ part which only goes so far (see Guitar Hero, Rock Band, etc.) To truly ‘develop a lifelong love of (fill-in-the-blank)’ requires knowledge, skills, and competence. This is a must read for educators in any discipline!
“Creativity doesn’t spring from mastering fundamentals” implies the sequence of eat your spinach then get strong. You’re closer with “there should be no war between expressive writing and explicit teaching of grammar and mechanics.” The answer is “both/and,” not “either/or.”
At CTY, we have students talk about personal experience because they are writing about what they know. At the same time, we’re talking to them about everything from elegant sentences to unity and coherence to how to structure narratives and more.
So you get to eat spinach quiche, something healthy that’s also enjoyable.
Thank you, Eugene! I love the application of these ideas to music. And Ben, love the “spinach quiche” metaphor! Fantastic!
You know, former writers. Can’t resist stretching a metaphor to its limits
Great post.
As an English and Media teacher, I agree with most of your assertions, but I do find that I must be creative in my approach to how I teach spelling and grammar. Old-school methods–skill and drill–will not work. I really like Jeff Anderson’s books on grammar, including Everyday Editing as ways to invite students to notice patterns and forms in their writing and self-selected reading books.
Pondiscio is right in his assertion that authors need to “know stuff”. The stuff that makes for interesting writing is the experience and imagination of the author, not their mastery of spelling and punctuation. Teaching young writers requires understanding the hierarchy in place. The purpose of writing is the expression of ideas. Spelling and grammar ought to be taught to support that expression, not as a prerequisite.