Emerson School and Hacienda School Teaching kids to hate writing
spelling instead of thought and organization; prohib- it students from using effective writers’ tools such as dictionaries and thesauruses; test students by allow- ing them to write only one draft under severe time pressure; and use teachers who grew up hating writ- ing and are unhappy with the prospect of staying up late to read and grade 30 papers on the same boring topic. If, however, you want your child to write well, you must first ask yourself, what does it mean to be a good writer? Even for an audience of parents dedi- cated to nurturing outstanding students, the goal can have a variety of meanings. For some, it means that their children get good grades on writing assignments at school and attend prestigious colleges. Others, with a more long-term view, see good writing as the manifestation of clear thinking, which will help their students pursue higher education into professions such as medicine, law, engineering, academia, and so forth. Still others, see good writing as a channel for
If you want your child to learn to hate writing and, consequently, to write only when necessary, there are effective resources available to you—tradi- tional writing programs in most public schools. The results are typically students who are poor writers and, worse, students who believe they are doomed to be poor writers forever. The methods of instruction are time tested: highlight in red ink everything stu- dents have done wrong; focus on grammar and
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