Teaching Writing: Living It

My journey to work.

As I am about to embark on a new school year, at a new school with new courses and new students, I am examining writing textbooks, and discovered that many assign students the task of writing about themselves as writers. What they write, who they write for, and how they feel about writing. As a writer who has been seriously focused on creative writing since high school, writing is a part of my daily consciousness. I think about when I will write, I think about what I want to write, I think about revising what I’m working on. I think about what I am reading, from advertisements to texts to poems, considering what each piece is trying to communicate, how it’s communicating it, and how effective the writing is, to various degrees of consciousness. I do not take a lot of time to think about who I am as a writer. I take for granted that I am a writer, just like I am a woman and an American and a Jew. It is inherent to my basic identity.

But as I prepare lesson plans, class schedules, and syllabi, and I prepare to ask my students who they are as writers, I am being given the opportunity to consider who I am as a writer, what are my goals, and who do I want to write for. I am asked to think about my writing history, which is closely intertwined with my life and my self-esteem. I am asked to consider my influences, habits, and methods. When I first began to think about my relationship with writing and myself as a writer, it seemed simple: I am a writer, and I write to share my voice with the world. However, this is not an introspective or revealing response. If a student turned in this answer, I would respond with questions like, but what does it mean to be a writer? How do you feel about writing? How do you share your voice with the world?

When I was still small enough to sit in my mother’s lap and too young to yet know how to read, I fought for my mother’s attention so that she would read to me. Once I started writing, I loved that, too. I wanted my teachers to tell me how good my book reports were. I wanted other students to think that I was the best writer in the class, just like I wanted to be the fastest runner. Writing was not just something I enjoyed, it was also a way to get recognition.

When I was in sixth grade, a friend of mine became the object of our teasing, and was nicknamed Dogwoman. At the end of the previous school year, I had similarly been singled out, and everyone in my class barked at me when I walked by. Since it had happened to me at the end of the school year, I spent all summer worrying that the harassment would continue when I returned in the fall. Although it was a terrible experience, I did not translate my feelings about this experience when I joined in the teasing. In fact, when a mutual friend suggested we write a book about Dogwoman, my immediate thought was all the jokes I could include. So began a series of books about the adventures of Dogwoman, written by me and illustrated by my friend. I completely forgot the stories were about a real person and reveled in silliness of the writing, coming up with sixth grade level dirty jokes and ridiculous situations. The books were wildly popular in my grade, with a better circulation than any library book. If I had ever considered the cruelty of the stories, it was quickly squashed by the attention the books got.

Thanks to my whit, not only did I destroy a friendship, but for a period of time she did not have any friends at our school. Still, it took me years recognize the damage I had done and accept responsibility. I wish that an adult had intervened. It might have saved my friend a good deal of pain. I wish that I had some empathy and some guts and I would not have participated and would have instead stuck up for my friend. Writing has consequences, sometimes unintended consequences. And there are some wrongs which you are not given an opportunity to write: I have not been able to find my friend and make a proper apology.

The kind of writer and person I want to be is one whose writing makes the world a better place. I want to make people think about their choices and consider their behavior. I want to help people by sharing my own experiences and what I have discovered. I want to be part of a dialogue of joy. When I was pregnant, I wrote about morning sickness and some other challenges I experienced. A few months later, a friend told me that she had tried my suggestions, and it had helped her. For me, this was a great compliment, because it meant that something I had written had a positive impact. Part of what I want to teach my students is the power of writing, that with their words they can inspire change, both large and small. Something as small and transitory as a social media post can darken or lighten someone’s day. As Uncle Ben in Tobey Maguire’s 2002 Spiderman says, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

It all depends on how you look at it.