A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

We’re in a bit of an AI crisis for writing in public high schools and colleges. Students are letting ChatGPT write their essays for them. Instructors are using ChatGPT to help them grade those essays. In some cases, we literally have AI writing and grading itself!

The current solution being offered by many people who are from the previous generation is a return to Blue Books (or handwritten, timed essay writing in class). Many of us remember the tiring practice of clutching a pencil, gripping it tightly, writing as quickly as possible, for sixty to ninety minutes in a classroom.

This generation? Not so much.

Sure, there are some classrooms and schools that prioritize handwriting and penmanship, but that is not true for the many students today. Worse: solving a tech crisis by rolling back to an earlier technology rarely lasts.

Still, we love handwriting at Brave Writer, and we train students to freewrite by hand for copywork and dictation (we even have a FREE Copywork Guide). Your kids should be prepared for whatever may come.

But, also, keep in mind that today’s kids want two things: a challenge and an audience! They like to work hard (for instance, the amount of time they spend learning editing tools to make a compelling short video for social media is proof), and they want to be heard. So watch a make-up tutorial on TikTok or a political rant by a teen on YouTube. Read their screeds about tech, religion, and gaming.

Rethink how students demonstrate learning.

• Can they produce short films and upload them online?
• Can they create a “zine”—an analog magazine with pages, artwork, and a variety of article types?
• Can they give oral presentations or host debates?

Humans love learning, and they love sharing what they learn.

Technology moves us forward, and the solution for how to manage technology can’t be moving backwards. Blame and shame never work. Catching cheaters never works. Comparing the era you went to college to today’s college students misses the mark.

It’s time to adapt.

You know how sometimes you just “foist” your homeschool plans on your kids and then they look “deer-in-the-headlights” instead of thrilled?

For instance, you might be considering a shift in your history program. You’re off stage, doing your research, chatting online, reviewing a variety of theories of instruction and materials. You finally make the agonizing, expensive decision to purchase.

Monday morning comes. You present this new, unfamiliar program over breakfast with a face of enthusiasm: “Ta da!” Your kids? They wilt. All they see is more schoolwork that they have to learn how to do that they don’t yet see as important or interesting.

So what happens?

Your bubble of enthusiasm is immediately popped! You grow a garden of hurt feelings that your children didn’t appreciate all that work you put into making sure they have the exact right, wonderful, interesting program you found for them.

The thing is, though: you didn’t bring them along. They don’t know the hours you spent combing through discussion board archives. They don’t know the sleepless nights wondering how to afford this program. They don’t know how much work it took to convince your partner that this change was going to be worth it.

If you want them to care, prepare them! Dribble it out over time: “I’m noticing that we’re all pretty bored with our history program. I started looking around a bit for a new one. If you were to say what might make history less boring, what would you want to have in a program?” Or you could say, “I found this free download and I wanted you to give me your opinion about how it strikes you.”

When you include your kids a bit in the journey, they are more likely to at least accept the choice you make if not look forward to it!

You can do all of these acts with your kids. There are no extra credit points for surprising them.

Need More Support?

Brave Writer’s Intuitive Homeschool Planning Tool helps you plan for the real child you have and love. You’ll explore your child’s joys, personality, passions, interests, and strengths. The exercises lead you through a unique planning process that keeps the child you love at the center, so your plans are more likely to be effective.