Educating Young Writers

Writing education, and education in general, was very different in my mother's era. In rural Kentucky at that time, a lot of students -- boys particularly -- didn't make it through school. They were needed on the farm. They had eight years of education in a one room schoolhouse. The focus was, by and large, on the basics. Many students didn't even learn those. They might have responsibilities that kept them from attending regularly -- or illnesses. One of my mother's sisters couldn't only walk a little, on crutches. She couldn't get to school. She didn't go. Other students, I am sure, had learning difficulties that the school simply didn't address. One of the results was that a lot of students didn't learn basic grammar or punctuation. But those that did had doors open to them. They had a way out of poverty.

In virtually every part of the country, things have changed. There has been an increase in educational opportunity, particularly for the poor and middle classes. Most of us celebrate that increase in educational opportunity. Yet, we may simultaneously yearn for a style of education more appropriate to a bygone era. "When I was a child," declare the most well-intentioned of parents, "students learned the basics, and they received a classic education. Sure, there is spell check, but a person does not always have access to a computer; part of education is discipline, and that is what will carry my child the furthest."

It's not just people of my mother's generation who yearn for an older style of education. It's people of my generation as well. People didn't have home computers when I was in the primary grades, and a lot of communication was still handwritten as opposed to typed. Spelling and penmanship were given a lot of emphasis, and were given grades on the report card. I think a lot of people see the computer as a giant cheat sheet for writers -- and this disturbs me. Technology has contributed a good deal to the changing world of writing education, but this does no signify a lessening of educational standards. The educational system -- and the world at large -- demands more from a young writer than it did at any time in our history. What schools taught earlier generations is no longer enough.

In the United States and many other parts of the world, citizens have the opportunity to publish their words at will to the world wide web. The opportunity is there even foe those who are relatively poor by the standards of their nation. I am an example of that, having put up a blog and another small website at a time when I was without a working computer. I did much of the work via online publishing software accessed at the local library. Armed now with a netbook, I maintain sites on several subjects that I care about, and I publish myself to the internet on a daily basis. I earn some of my income that way. In this respect, I am hardly alone. People today have access to an amazing wealth of educational resources, and they have a previously unheard of opportunity to lift up their voices -- to have them heard and to make them count. Yet at times they may feel that they are lost in a veritable avalanche of words.

That avalanche of words that is the internet is, by and large, a well-punctuated avalanche. Correct punctuation and spelling are no longer enough to declare to the world that we are thoughtful or well-educated. How then do we convince others that our words have merit, that it is worth their while to stop the endless searching and read? Partly it is a matter of ideas, partly it is a matter of expression. And yes, presentation is still important, with options for presentation more varied than ever before. We don't necessarily have to know computer languages, but design sense and layout matter more in some venues than penmanship.