Writing Purposes

I feel as if I am learning two somewhat opposing ways to teach writing. One is to teach writing for a specific purpose in a specific way. The other is to teach writing for the reward of writing itself, a somewhat cathartic experience. Our class is reading two very different books about these views. One is by Regie Routman called Writing Essentials. The other, by Anne Lamott, is Bird by Bird. Now, I think one can tell by the titles themselves which one is conventional and which one is not. I admit, I tend to be a conservative and go more with the conventional text, such as teaching the actual skills of writing, but I have bitten my tongue and resolved to find some gems of worth in the other, and I think I have found some.

Lamott is admittedly a bit crude for my taste, but I do agree with her that good writing should be “about telling the truth” (p. 3). Sometimes I think she could use a bit more reserve in her descriptive powers, but I have to admit agreeing with her about her characters. Sometimes it is best to not save them but let them suffer the consequences. Her story about a “frazzled, defeated wife of an alcoholic man who kept passing out on the front lawn in the middle of one night,” was one such example. The wife kept dragging him in each morning before dawn to avoid the neighbor’s view until finally an old black woman from the South advised her saying, “Honey? Leave him lay where Jesus flang him” (p. 46). That was inspirational.

Is Blogging Life Changing?

Google wanted to know. Can learning how to blog change 12-year-old Makeal’s life, or anyone’s life for that matter? I wonder the same question for myself. Why do I blog? Will blogging have lasting ramifications for me or those who read my blogs?

Makeal, a 12-year-old boy living in E. Oakland, was part of a study to determine if learning how to blog can have an impact on low-income kids. He and his class were given the opportunity to be bussed weekly to the Google office in San Francisco to be taught how to blog. Did it make a difference in his life? Makeal says it did. For one, he got to pick his own topics, which excited him from the start. He chose his favorite past-time, skateboarding, but it was just one of the subjects he actually blogged about. It turned out blogging made Makeal realize he had thoughts about other things he’d like to share as well. Gaining confidence as he went, he began to share those other thoughts too.

Blogging did seem to have lasting ramifications for Makeal. He comes to school more regularly now and is recognizing he is learning useful skills, like the blogging, to open up new possibilities for his future. Currently, he can see himself as an architect, a skateboarder, video-game designer, or a firefighter. I love the way he doesn’t limit himself. He knows he could be any of those, because Google has already begun to teach him about succeeding in life.

Blogging may not be the cure-all, but it can open our lives to new possibilities, as Makeal is demonstrating. I will continue my blogging but can’t help but wonder, after seeing what Google did for Makeal, can Google help me too?