A Brave Writer's Life in Brief

They say writing as a job will be eliminated by AI. Weirdly, I agree.

The kind of writing being replaced by AI is the kind of writing most writing curricula teach.

And that’s the problem.

When schools and homeschool programs teach writing by format, they admit that writing can be reproduced by a machine easily.

You know what kind of writing AI can never reproduce? Your:

• original thinking,
• ideas,
• insights,
• and beliefs.

Humanity First

Kids need help finding those words and thoughts that live inside them first! Their writing starts with their humanity, not structure.

AI is great at the machinery of writing.

But we humans will always be better at being our original selves.

We teach WRITERS, not writing. We would for love you to try the Brave Writer difference! Growing Brave Writers is our best program to grow a writer.

When we teach kids to speak, we’re so nice. We take all their misspoken words and laugh delightedly and jot them down in the baby book. We treat thise words like sacred text and family lore— like the risky adorable self expression that they are!

Why don’t we do the same thing when our kids are first learning to write? Why aren’t we thrilled at their attempts to spell?

Your youngster is not a bad speller.

Your child is inventing written language to represent the firehose of words and ideas that they can say easily. Spelling lags behind oral speech because writing is harder. But it requires the same opportunity for risk and support.

What was your child’s first spoken word? Do you remember how proud you were?

Do you remember one of the first words your child tried to write that they misspelled? Can you see it now with delight?

For more support, Growing Brave Writers helps parents teach their kids to write following a natural developmental process.

Referring to the Brave Writer philosophy, someone asked: “Where did you find the courage to homeschool in such a unique way?”

I loved this question because it helped me understand Brave Writer’s role in the home education space.

My whole goal is to give you a reason to have courage, to be brave.

You can take it in baby steps.

One little step at a time gets you the whole way there.

You develop confidence as you see results.

And the good news is this: your kids will teach you. They don’t tolerate boredom or meaninglessness.

You’ll want to learn how they learn so that you can create the beautiful vision of education that you dare to hope is true and viable.

Need more support?  Brave Learner Home is our online community of families homeschooling together the Brave Writer way. We help you discover joy in learning at home and gain the skills you need to teach with confidence.

In our Brave Writer online classes, writing instructors not only give feedback about your child’s writing, they also highlight particular pain points in home education.

Every so often, we’ll share their comments on the blog (with persmission) so the wider homeschool community can benefit. Plus, this will give you a sneak peek of the kind of thoughtful input our writing coaches provide!

In today’s post, a parent had asked what to do if a child is suspected of using Chat GPT for a rough draft. Coach Hanne Bjornstad replies.

The Response

Thanks for reaching out. You’re not alone with this; I’m coming across more and more families who are trying (struggling!) to navigate these new technologies. I think about this a lot for my own kids, too. I used to think we’d be immune to its charms, but I’m seeing now that this is going to be something we all have to think about. Phew, right? …

While I can give you some ideas for spotting AI, I know that’s not really getting to the heart of your dilemma, which comes down to something that feels a lot more relational. We want our kids to know that we value their essential “them-ness,” right? And we don’t want to shake that relational connection with suspicion, especially because we know how capable and thoughtful they are. I think you’re right that the goal in all of this is to be able to hear a writer’s own distinctive voice, and I wonder if there’s a way to focus on that in a conversation with him.

I also wonder if externalizing things a bit might help. There are free AI checkers that you can run text through, like GPTZero, and they say something like: “This software says there might be some AI text in your draft.” That might feel less like a direct accusation. When I’ve had some suspicions with my own kid, I also have asked her just to walk me through her writing process and how she came up with the ideas because “they seem a little different from your usual writing.”

I don’t know if that helps or not; I’m happy to keep chatting. I’ve been thinking about AI in writing a lot lately, in case you can’t tell by the length of this reply! On my end, I’ll continue to treat his writing as unique and original to him, as that’s our current policy at Brave Writer, but if you want him to submit another draft or take another approach, just let me know, and we can work something out!

Warmly, Hanne

It seems the spirit of the age is that parents ought to take control of their children’s lives because the parent knows best and the world is dangerous.

Yet the child knows best what their interior life feels like. Most kids want to have a good and happy life (believe me—didn’t you?). They are not out to get away with anything.

Your children are learning what is good for them and what isn’t. They cannot always know that on their own.

We’ve forgotten the inner child cry—“I know things! I’m not a bad person. I want to be happy!” We can start here with optimism rather than scrutiny and fear.

We don’t have to…

• treat our children like they’re lying to us or are bent on their own self-destruction.
• lead with suspicion or treating our children’s desires as frightening to us.
• shame them or blame them for wanting what we decided was bad for them (more computer time, extra candy, staying up late, climbing an eight foot wall).

If we start with curiosity and kindness while showing interest in how a child wants to assemble their lives, we may find ideas that help both them and us thrive.

It’s hard for kids to trust their parents when kids feel they aren’t seen as trustworthy themselves.

I wrote a whole book called The Brave Learner to help you find meaningful ways to connect with your children, while trusting them and leading them into a great life that they will enjoy and you will feel good about.