Over the weekend, my oldest son had a poem to write and he sat for quite a long time staring at the blank page. As a writer and a former elementary school teacher, it is often difficult for me to remain silent on the homework front, but I try. The work is his and much to his dismay, I stay out of it as much as possible. He would have been thrilled had I sat down and began 'helping' him compose a poem. Instead, I pointed out to him that there are ideas all around him. All he has to do is settle on one and run with it. He is big into sports so those euphemisms are usually appreciated, but not when writing is the assignment which leads me to the question of whether writers are born or made?
In my case, the written word has always been easier than the spoken. I was incredibly shy as a child and it was very difficult for me to express myself verbally. However, give me a piece of paper and I was off and running. I also loved to read and would easily become enamored in a book, completely losing track of time. Experience and research has shown that writing and reading go hand in hand.
Two of my three children are quite verbal and bright. The third is just learning to speak so we'll have to wait and see how the coin turns for her. However, the teacher in me sees that one has the writing gene and the other does not. They both enjoy reading, but for one it is a passion. I have actually needed to tell him on more than one occasion that he needed to put the book away and go outside. My husband will usually look at me and laugh, "Did you really just say that?"
Eventually, the poem got written, but not without a great deal of tween drama. I am definitely not looking forward to the middle school years. I know that this will certainly not be the last writing assignment he will struggle through. He simply does not enjoy writing. Ask him to tell a story and he will blow you away. He can talk circles around most people. Ask him to write that same story on a piece of paper and he will say later. The other one, however, often composes his own stories and poems without prompting. Interesting.
A college professor of mine once said that there is one novel in every person just waiting to be written. In my case, I know without a doubt that there are many. Whether or not anyone besides me gets to read them is another blog post. However, I am not sure that is true for everyone else. Personally, I think that some people are just born to write. Even when I shelved writing to concentrate on teaching, it was always there in the back of my mind calling to me.
Neither one of my parents were big readers or writers and neither one went to college. I cannot remember one teacher encouraging my desire to write until college. So where did mine come from? During my years in the classroom, writing was a big part of the day. It was my forte and what I enjoyed. I cannot say the same for most of my students. However, when I did come across one that had the passion, I made it a point to encourage it.
I often wonder what happened to that little girl in my third grade class. She was certainly familiar, shy with her nose always in a book or scribbling in a journal. One day during free-writing, she handed in a poem that completely blew me away. I actually stopped and took out her reading book to see if she had copied one. She hadn't. With her parents permission, I helped her submit the poem to a children's magazine.
When I asked her the following years if she was still writing poems, she looked down and told me her mother said writing was a waste of time and she had better things to do. I told her she had talent and should keep writing. I hope she listened.
No comments:
Post a Comment