Teaching writing, part 1: First the bad news

It should have been so easy.

After all, you weren’t asking for much—just a story or something. To simplify things, you didn’t even care how long it should be. Or what topic he picked. Given a lot of freedom, you reasoned, he wouldn’t feel so squished or frustrated…and the words would just flow.

So what went wrong?

Your plan backfired miserably, and now your son hunches tearfully over a mountain of wadded pages, each one a smudged and wrinkled reminder of what he already believes about himself: I can’t write!

If it’s any comfort, you’re not alone. This scene plays out at kitchen tables and makeshift schoolrooms around the country, where dejected students scrunch up papers, break pencils, bang keyboards, and cry buckets—and disheartened moms throw up their hands in frustration.

Maybe it helps to know that homeschoolers everywhere share the same lament: Why is writing so hard to teach?

The Disheartened Parent

For one thing, many parents feel insecure, inadequate, and unequipped. Teaching writing, so often a dreaded chore, ranks right up there with a trip to the dentist. Although we know the importance of passing on good writing skills to our children, a stack of excuses stands in the way:

• How can I teach if I never learned to write?
• Writing comes easily to me—but I don’t have a clue how to teach my kids.
• I don’t know what to expect from their writing.
• I don’t know how to grade a paper.
• I haven’t found a writing program I like.

The Struggling Student 

Your own shortcomings are enough to make you less than eager to assign writing. But your kids’ negative reactions to your teaching attempts can cause you to abandon the subject all together. After all, who loves to face the tearful outbursts or sullen expressions that writing assignments can produce?

Kids are often paralyzed by writer’s block, fear, and perfectionism. Most want to write a paper once and call it done. Not only that, they expect you to rave over it and accept it as a finished product! The smallest hint of an idea from Mom sets off howls of protest. Why can’t I leave it this way? You never like anything I write!

A Formula for Failure 

Insecure parent, reluctant child, blank paper. Three ingredients that, combined together, fairly promise that your hopes for teaching writing will fail. Let’s face it. It’s easy to keep pushing writing to the back burner with plans of getting to it “someday.” And for many, “someday” has come and gone, and now you have

• a high schooler who can’t write;
• a panicked mom burdened by guilt;
• and the infernal blank page that taunts you both.

Some Stumbling Blocks

Plenty of stumbling blocks stand in the way of a young writer’s success. Laziness, procrastination, and perfectionism interfere with motivation and productivity. Anticipation of parental criticism creates unrealistic anxiety. And lack of direction or poor writing skills affect confidence and performance.

A Glimmer of Hope

But take heart—these stumbling blocks are not so heavy that they can’t be moved, or so high that they can’t be scaled. Roll up your sleeves and come back next Monday, March 31 for Teaching writing, part 2: Some good news. I’ll see you then with some encouraging and helpful tips.

Copyright © 2008 Kim Kautzer. All rights reserved.