A Memorable Writing-Related Reflection
Some of you may remember that The Art of Writing began in March 2021 as a writing-related reflection in my monthly update email to current clients, a lot of whom I had never met due to Covid lockdowns, as a way to connect with them on a personal level during a time of isolation.
Since then, the newsletter has evolved into its current format, and its audience includes not only current clients but also past and prospective ones, college admissions consultants, university faculty, neuropsychologists, educational psychologists, school directors of admission, school learning specialists, school counselors, students, family, lovers of writing, etc.
Out of all of the writing-related reflections that I have written for The Art of Writing over the last four and a half years, the one that I think about the most is the one below, “The Deterioration of Writing Education,” which I wrote in January 2022, and thus, I wanted to re-share it.
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The Deterioration of Writing Education
January 2022
As I was preparing to move into my office in July of 2021, my dad shared an article with me, “Burbank and His Plant School,” that his mother, Thelma Rose Cerruti, wrote when she was just nine years old. It was published in the San Francisco Chronicle on December 30, 1922, shortly after her tenth birthday.
When I read the article for the first time, my initial reaction was, “What has happened to writing education over the years?”
My grandma’s story and the other children’s stories published in the December 30, 1922, “The Chronicle’s Kiddie’s Corner” are superior to most adults’ writing today.
Why?
Is it because people don’t read as much today?
Is it because comprehensive foundational grammar, editing, and proper paragraph and essay instruction are either partially or entirely bypassed at a lot of elementary and middle schools, private and public alike, today?
Is it because kids today have extremely limited vocabularies and frequently misuse words and use what reputable dictionaries classify as “informal” words?
Is it because kids today play too many video games, watch too many YouTube videos, watch too much TV, etc.?
Is it because of text messages and the acceptability that has developed regarding not editing them?
Or is it a combination of all of the above?
A quintessential example of writing that I frequently see when students provide me with a writing sample during a Writing Assessment session is my son Jacob’s “The Tag” paper.
With his permission, I have shared it with you below. He wrote that story in his fourth-grade classroom when he was almost exactly the same age that my grandma was when she wrote her “Burbank and His Plant School” story and before I intervened with his school writing “education.”
During Jacob’s first fifth-grade parent-teacher conference, his teacher told his dad and me that Jacob is a “great writer” and shared with us a paper that he had written during class. I don’t remember what the writing sample was about—just that it left me questioning my reading comprehension skills and immediately planning his writing intervention. I was also left wondering how his teacher gave it an “A” . . .
As most of you know, from my April 2021 “The Importance of Ongoing Writing Education” blog post, Jacob finally allowed me to be his writing teacher, in addition to his mom, shortly after that conference.
He is now a freshman in Accelerated English at Archbishop Mitty High School, and when his instructor for that course, who primarily teaches AP Literature, puts comments such as “This is a model paper.” “Amen!” etc., on his essays, Jacob and I both think back to “The Tag” and recognize how far he has come with his writing—but not without a lot of commitment and time and effort from both of us.
Currently, I have a framed copy of my grandma’s story on my desk in my office, and I plan to frame a copy of “The Tag” as well as a reminder to myself and others of the importance of preserving proper English and writing instruction.
Writing always has been and always will be a form of communication. Thus, we must constantly ask ourselves what we are communicating to others with our writing.
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