Critical Considerations For Writing Teachers

The childhood of my youth appears to have gone the way of tape recorders, cassette players, CD's and the like. At the very least such items are on an endangered list. When sharing childhood experiences with today’s generation of students, I realize that our respective childhood experiences are world's apart.

 My generation grew up in small houses with big backyards. The focus of our daily existence was the world outdoors. We had extraordinary freedom to explore our immediate world. The children I now work with, (and I’m talking in general terms here) live in bigger houses, with small backyards and the focus of their lives is frequently indoors. The growth of digital technology in its myriad forms calls after them like a siren. It urges them to remain under cover. X box, computer games, and a multitude of screens win out over an outdoor lifestyle. The digital revolution has swept over our lives like a metaphorical tsunami.

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 Freedom appears to have diminished. It now extends to the front gate for many of these children. The world is perceived as a potentially more dangerous place. Anxious parents control so much of the time children spend beyond school.  Too many parents are fearful of their children becoming bored. They morph into entertainment directors. Boredom is not a bad thing. It can lead to inventiveness and new possibilities. If boredom is the problem, overcoming it presents an opportunity in developing problem solving skills. 

 Many children’s lives are timetabled, leaving little time to explore, create and generally discover the wider wonders of the world. Kids living this kind of life are the lucky ones.

 While debriefing with teachers, I notice a recurring theme. Teachers frequently lament a general lack of world knowledge among their students. They feel that they now are doing a lot more compensatory teaching. Trying to encourage greater student awareness of the world around them is consuming more teaching time. Encouraging sensory awareness, noticing small natural wonders, celebrating simple pleasures have assumed a greater importance. Rejuvenating the sensory perceptions of students has become something that requires greater, sustained attention. 
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 An experienced teacher told me that she believes her childhood was closer to the adventures of Tom Sawyer. Whereas the childhoods of too many of today's children lack that essential element of genuine adventure. Maybe she's right. Coddled, constrained and covered in anti bacterial makes it difficult to live childhood as it was intended.

 Ben, a teacher I worked with a few years back told me about the time ants invaded his classroom. He decided to investigate the matter more fully and took his class on a mission of discovery to find where the ants were actually coming from. They tracked them down to a tree outside the classroom where the ants were found in mass profusion at the higher reaches of the tree. They watched the ants and discussed the possible reasons as to why they were there and in the classroom. They drew the ants and some even decided to write about the ants. One student drew a picture of the tree with a huge ant ‘castle’ in it. Ben and his students had shared a teachable moment. It was an invaluable chance to wonder and speculate and be curious. Ben was surprised that many of his students brought little prior knowledge to the experience. 
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 It is evident that rich conversations in the home have been replaced by watching and viewing. We have a visual generation, but verbally they are often undernourished. This points to the increasing importance of conducting quality conversations in the classroom. Talk is a critical pre writing requisite. When kids have the opportunity to articulate their writing intentions; to discuss and clarify ideas, they generally produce more effective writing pieces.

 Learning floats on a sea of talk. Day by day our teaching can move young readers and writers to a more informed place if we mindfully work towards building not just word knowledge, but equally, world knowledge. Effective writers need to be keen observers of their world. Alerting young learners to possibility will drive more conscious observation of their immediate world. Bring the outside in and take the opportunity to move beyond the classroom when you and your students can. Harvest ideas with conscious enthusiasm. Let's initiate a fascinating and compelling alternative world to that offered by screens.
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