Every decent human impulse we have as teachers shouts in favor of not
imposing rules and discipline on students, but liberating them to
discover the power of their voice by sharing their stories. Of course children will be become better writers if they write personal narratives instead of book reports. Obviously
children will be more engaged and motivated if they can write from the
heart about what they know best, rather that trudge through turgid
English essays and research papers.
Grammar? Mechanics?
Correcting errors? Please. Great writing is discovery. It is the
intoxicating power of words and our own stories, writing for an audience
and making things happen in the world. We know this works. We all saw the movie Freedom Writers, didn't we?
Like so many of our earnest and most deeply humane ideas about
educating children in general, and poor, urban children in particular,
this impulse toward authenticity is profoundly idealistic, seductive,
and wrong. I should know. I used to damage children for a living with
that idealism.
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