Brave Writer

Peter Jennings died last night. I found this tidbit from the New York Times fascinating given our desire to help our kids become effective narrators of life:

In “The Century” (Doubleday, 1998), one of two history books that he co-wrote with Todd Brewster, Mr. Jennings recalled an early exercise that his father put him through to sharpen his powers of observation. “Describe the sky,” his father had said. After the young boy had done so, his father dispatched him outside again. “Now, go out and slice it into pieces and describe each piece as different from the next.”

I loved this.

I don’t even think I could do this with the night sky. But it reminded me of what I’ve done with my kids with art. Later this week, I’ll share some ideas for how to make art come to life for you and your kids.

Charlotte Mason suggests the same kind practice when out in nature. Send your child to look at a plant or tree and ask her to return with a description of what she saw. Send her again to find an even more precise detail that she overlooked the first time. Then listen as she tightens her description.

Model this behavior when you observe anything as well.

–Julie

But let me say again there must be no attempt to teach composition. Our failure as teachers is that we place too little dependence on the intellectual power of our scholars, and as they are modest little souls what the teacher kindly volunteers to do for them, they feel they cannot do for themselves. But give them a fair field and no favour and they will describe their favorite scene from the play they have read, and much besides.

(A Philosophy of Education, 192)

What is implied in this quote as well is trust. We must trust the process in order to let our kids grow as narrators and writers.

Chris Baty, creator of National Novel Writing Month, says:

The first law of exuberant imperfection is essentially this: the quickest, easiest way to produce something beautiful and lasting is to risk making something horribly crappy.

Most writing programs for homeschool emphasize excellence (even in their names!), order, right thinking and writing.

I’d rather emphasize exuberance.

I wrote recently that “joy is the best teacher.” Exuberance is the manifestation of joy – for the sheer fun of it.

Exuberance looks like jumping on a trampoline with sprinklers underneath, eating the rest of the ice cream out of the carton with a spoon (and not saving any for anyone else!), singing really loud in the car with the windows down. It’s the down track of a roller coaster, big ocean waves tossing you in the air, your first real kiss (the kind where you lock lips until you gasp for air).

Exuberant writing, then, is the kind that races, that is filled with imagination, hunger, drive, ideas, words and energy.

I know I’m in the “exuberant zone” when I can’t stop, when words pop, when the world is suddenly one big writing tablet.

Is it possible to unleash exuberance in our kids when they often see writing as the enemy? YES! That’s the whole point of this blog.

Exuberant imperfection is critical to better writing later. Anyone who hasn’t experienced exuberance in writing has not yet encountered her writer’s voice. Exuberance fosters voice. Freedom to fail creates the opportunity for exuberance. A receptive audience ensures exuberance (after all, if you dance in your underpants, when you get caught, you hope the person will strip down and dance too, not mock you).

So pick some of the zany freewrites and exercises from this blog and use them over the summer. Get jiggy with it!

Exuberate! And write. (Ha! I think I just made up a word. Shakespeare would be proud.)

Almost.

Many of you are familiar, by now, with my writing guru: Peter Elbow (author of Writing with Power). I have been hunting for his email address for five years. My aim? To thank him for his profound influence on my work as a writer, editor and instructor. Mostly, I wanted to touch the hem of his garment.

Fast forward to last week. I attended a book signing. The author happens to work with Jon at Xavier. She and I have become friends, as well. She mentioned in her acknowledgements that Peter Elbow looked at an early manuscript. I jumped on this information.

“Do you have his email address?”

“Yes.”

“Do you think he’d mind if I emailed him?”

She assured me that he wouldn’t mind in the least.

So I got up early the next morning and sent him a long overdue thank you note.

Three hours later: Ping! A new email message. From Peter! A rush ran through me. I had a personal email from the master.

Besides being friendly and warm, he sent me two articles to read that speak to issues I’m working through for the high school book. I also shared with him about how he helped me break through writer’s block when I had to write my first graduate level research paper. After ten years of professional writing and editing, you’d think I wouldn’t have struggled. Not! I hit a brick wall reinforced by steel. Dr. Elbow understood and shared a tidbit I want to pass on to you.

So here’s that bit of insight from Dr. Elbow, himself:

When you speak of your recent struggles in grad school, it just reinforces what I see all the time: how school–and ESPECIALLY grad school–has a myriad of factors that make writing hard.

In an academic climate–and when I’m talking to (grad) students who are struggling, I find it useful not just to talk about going fast and not sweating it; it seems to be useful to say WRITE WRONG! The concepts of “write” and “excellent” are so tyrannical: it’s useful just to spit in their face and invite wrongness.

Doors open.

So I charge you: write it wrong! And start spitting.

Or in your right mind?

Well which is it? Does The Writer’s Jungle cater to the left or the right brain? Does it work better for a left or right-brained mom or child? Should you read it “left to right” or “right to left” or standing on your head?

Seriously. Inquiring left and right minds want to know.

Writing is one of those rare activities that harnesses both the left and right hemispheres of the brain so that they must talk to each other.

Teaching writing, then, is all about getting your child’s neuro-connectors connecting. As a mother, you are like a complex switchboard that receives feedback, interprets it and re-routes it so that your child’s brain can get back together and on task.

Dr. Mel Levine (specialist in reading and writing learning disabilities) says this about writing:
“Writing may encompass the most complex task students face each day. Students must simultaneously recall ideas, vocabulary, rules of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and make use of strategies while producing their thoughts on paper. Orchestrating these multiple demands can be overwhelming for some students. They must use a range of abilities from the higher order problem solving processes of brainstorming and creating ideas to the more basic movements of getting their fingers to form letters using a pencil or typing on a keyboard.”

Phew—doesn’t that sound like a lot of brain power?

So when evaluating writing programs, the better question to ask is: how does this program get the two halves of the brain talking?

The Writer’s Jungle is designed with the chatty brain in mind. High order thinking skills are affirmed and cultivated, while technical skills are slowly acquired through dictation and copywork.

A young child’s flights of imagination and conscientious reporting of facts are recorded (“jot it down” phase).

A middler’s narrations are written by hand with help from mom (“partnership phase”).

A preteen’s expanding ideas with messy punctuation make it to the computer screen revealing writer’s voice (“faltering ownership phase”).

A teen’s emerging opinions and competence in mechanics combine in essays and research papers (“ownership phase”).

In the meantime, literary elements are enjoyed, pointed out and experienced while reading high quality literature and non-fiction. They are copied in long-hand using copywork and dictation during the week. Tools for breaking through writer’s block and creating narrative flow are taught to enhance the child’s written self-expression. Writers discover ways to unblock themselves as they gain confidence in their writing abilities. Readers are sought so that the writing is valued and loved.

As your writers gain competence, writing forms are introduced as “tools of the trade” (not as straight jackets), and these are used to meet the demands of whatever writing environment the writer chooses to address.

This is the essence of The Writer’s Jungle and all the classes and materials that Brave Writer offers. It is a holistic approach to the teaching of writing.

There are differences between writing manuals.

Ask yourself: Does the curriculum treat writing like a system that exists “out there” (or “back then”) that only needs to be decoded and copied? Or does the manual recognize the complex and organic nature of writing that lives in the writer?

Does the curriculum facilitate a slow, but steady and gentle attention to “left brained” skills while nourishing the “right brained” imagination, critical thinking and associative powers that are essential to original writing?

Becoming a brave writer involves both halves of the brain. Being the mother who facilitates that growth requires both halves of her brain too… and a little tea and chocolate as well.