subtitle: Remove computers from the English classroom.
Writing and English Education in America
I know that we are currently riding on a runaway train. Now with A.I., can we ever go back? We would be hard-pressed to find any classroom in this country without computers in it. And I recognize and admit that when students do work on computers, life becomes somewhat easier for teachers. In the previous chapters, and in my upcoming book (soon to be released: From Books to Screens…and Other Disasters in American Culture and Education), I have complained incessantly about the harried and overwhelmed English teacher carrying around stacks of essays, often handwritten by students who have terrible handwriting.
Pen and Paper
HOWEVER, handwriting onto paper is the key to teaching students to write. In fact, it is the key to teaching students most anything. Something organic happens in students’ brains when they write things down with a pen onto paper. It gets locked in; they get “bought in,” and invested.
I tutor a ninth grade student currently in a highly-ranked and expensive private school in South Florida. Her English teacher makes them write all of their assignments, including essays, on the computer tablets. Yet, several days ago, my tutee was given an essay assignment to determine whether she could be promoted into an honors class. The department head sat her down, gave her a topic, and told her to write her essay on a paper with a pen (I think it was in a blue book).
Can you guess what happened? She screwed it up royally!!!! Without the computer to clean up all her myriad grammar, spelling, and other errors, she could hardly write a thing. And don’t even ask about her handwriting. Why on earth would she be able to? When has she gotten any practice writing with her own hand???? NEVER!!!
Are we ready to give up the competency, the creativity, the ingenuity that comes with writing things down?
Again, with the Shakespeare? Oy Vey!
Shakespeare was a notorious re-writer, as evidenced by the many “folios” he produced. He made draft after handwritten draft of all his plays and poems. Yet, he kept all the previous versions of them, and often he would revert back to a prior word or phrase or entire thought pattern from the earlier versions. When we write on computers, most people don’t save all of the drafting notes; they just get deleted into oblivion, never to be seen again.
This is a draft from one of his plays; I suppose from its length it is a soliloquy. Maybe one of those really long ones from Hamlet! Notice the scratch-outs.
And back to my tutoring student’s teacher, she never returns any graded papers for students to actually PERUSE and make corrections. How will she or the others actually learn? Aldous Huxley said it best with, “Mistakes are the portals to discovery.”
Writing by Hand is a Good Thing, and You Can Type It Up Later
I will admit, I am writing/typing this directly onto my computer. BUT I already learned how to write when I was in school, all by hand. I developed all of those skills (though some readers might question my writing choices at times!). I do, in fact, know that I should not start a sentence with a conjunction, like “but” as I did in the second sentence of this paragraph– it was a stylistic choice. Had I not learned and practiced these skills, I would just make the error and move on, unknowingly.
When I first planned this entire blog, I filled up about ten pages of handwritten notes. I still write copious notes all the damn time. It’s another skill students should learn and practice.
Writing is a craft, an art, a type of therapy, a way to know or to figure out what one really thinks and feels. I say please let us not take that away from the youth of America. In China, you won’t find one computer in a writing classroom. Not one. They have figured out that writing by hand is of great value.
Adults Learning English
My current teaching job is with adults learning English at a language school. They don’t get grades and my primary task is to teach them how to SPEAK English; writing is not really an emphasis . However, I do insist that my students write many things down on paper: notes, descriptions of pictures, new vocabulary. Most of them consistently tell me that this is their favorite thing to do and the best way for them to learn. Those who truly care about the learning write most everything down. I even give them little presents consisting of small journals and diaries to encourage the practice (thank you Dollar Tree!!).
Ergo…..please tell all of the teachers, school administrators, parents , anyone who will listen: Sound the alarm: LET STUDENTS WRITE ON PAPER. Do it for our future, if we do still have one in America.
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