Writing

I've written about Reading and now I'm going to tackle Writing. Let me start off by saying that I like to write--most of the time. And most of the time I find that I communicate well by writing. It wasn't always so!

Despite the best efforts of my teachers I was never a very good writer. I had trouble finding inspiration and I had trouble finding words. I'm sure that I put more than a few gray hairs in Mrs. Koerth's hair when I was in sixth grade. She was the teacher who made us do our very first research paper---we had to have footnotes and a bibliography and more than one page! I'm not sure that either of my high school English teachers held out much hope for my writing skills. After high school came college and there was more weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth over my tortured efforts in English classes.

But then came Colonel Russell Fudge. Colonel Fudge was a professor of political science at Howard Payne University--my alma mater. He was also the director of the Douglas MacArthur Academy of Freedom--an honors program in social sciences. As his title suggests, he was a retired military man. And he was tough--oh, that man was tough. He held a bachelor's degree in journalism, advanced degrees in something else. He was a war veteran and he had taught at the Army War College. And he taught me to write! And he instilled a love of writing in me that I'd never felt before.

Now, while he was teaching me to write in his advanced political science classes he also managed to cause me no small amount of angst over the red ink that was 'bled' on my papers! I'm sure I caused him no small amount of angst with my thick headedness. But over time, I took the lessons I learned and I have done my best to put them to good use.

I also have to credit my friend Viv for helping me learn good writing skills. She's English and has worked as a journalist in London for all of her adult life. In the early days of our friendship (since age 14) we wrote long, newsy tomes to each other--books, I suppose. We've joined the electronic age and communicate via Facebook, email, or text message. Viv is an amazing communicator and can do so quite effectively using as few or as many words as the situation requires.

My first graders are starting to write stories in class. We're going slowly and some efforts are easier and better than others. How can you help your child? Just be an encourager. Praise all efforts whether it's a great story or not so great! Have your child write a sentence or two about something that he/she has seen or heard or read. We're learning about capitalization and punctuation but realize that those are skills that require a lot of practice. Don't give up. Don't get discouraged. Be a partner in your child's educational journey!

Thank you for all you do for your children. I have amazing students--be they first, third, fourth, or junior high students!

WRITE ON!!