Direction for Teachers of Creative Writing

(continued from page 6)

by Dan Lukiv

Theme Six. Events in school that promoted the joy and exhilarating freedom of writing down his thoughts and feelings based on poetry and fiction read and having those thoughts and feelings valued by teachers encouraged Arthur to become a creative writer. This theme draws support from The Ministry through many statements. For example, "As students come to understand and use language more fully, they are able to enjoy the benefits and pleasures of...writing...Students should...feel that their ideas are valued....An English language arts program should encourage students to...communicate effectively in written...forms" (1996a, 1996b, 1996c, pp. 1-2).

His grade 13 English teacher, he said, "was fantastic....We'd write about...our feelings....It was, how did you feel about...? What did this make you think about...?" I added, "And to write about how you felt, to write about your thoughts--" "Encouraged my feelings," Arthur said, "to write about me and my feelings. So that led to my writing and my poetry. My sense of writing as a writer."

Some teachers had encouraged in Arthur an unlimited quality and depth, an unlimited exploration of "language and feelings." They had encouraged him "to explore feelings with language. To explore poetry. Especially poetry." These teachers "were all lovers and proponents of poetry, and great lovers of...literature." "They encouraged you," I asked, "to express your feelings and your thoughts about what you read?" "Not just orally," he answered, "but...on paper....That expression on paper as a writer began to take hold….But if I hadn't been encouraged,…perhaps I wouldn't be where I am today."

These teachers created "frequent opportunities [for students] to talk and write about what they [had] learned about themselves and others from a variety of stories [and] poems" (The Ministry, 1996a, 1996b, 1996c, p. 3), providing their "students greater self-awareness and a deeper appreciation of the richness and complexity of human experience" (1996, p. 3; 1996b, p. 3; 1996c, p. 4).

Theme Seven. Events in school that promoted the exhilarating freedom of choice of reading material encouraged Arthur to become a creative writer. The great variety of reading sources mentioned in The Ministry's three guides (1996a, 1996b, 1996c) provide ample freedom of choice for today's students.

Arthur experienced Theme Seven's exhilarating freedom of choice one day after school when he was allowed to stay in his grade ten English classroom and read whatever he wished from his teacher's class library. "Four o'clock in the afternoon and I'm sitting there. I'd been sitting there...since the end of the bell for an hour. And on [my teacher's] shelf there were a whole series of books that I'd never heard of. I picked off the shelf Biccaccio's Decameron....It was written in the...plague years, and considered a bit of a naughty book...[My teacher] was a very liberal lady. And that's part of my intrigue here."

He continued: "At any rate, I'm getting right into this. A...boy with testosterone [as he referred to himself]." The experience had allowed him to revel in and wonder about the sexuality of male-female relationships, and to wonder about his own adolescent sexuality. "I'm reading the stuff. I'm right into it. I'm totally oblivious. I...couldn't even hear a sound. There was nobody else in the world. And all of a sudden I looked up and there was [my teacher]." She just smiled and she sat down and she said, ‘What are you reading?' [Arthur grew too emotional to continue. He needed time to "collect himself.] "It was...a pivotal point for me. A really important point. My appreciation of not just the word, but the freedom that comes with me and the word." I wondered: "Do you mean that you learned something in that experience about language that you didn't know before?" "Oh, phenomenal. Phenomenal. Not so much language, but,...the freedom. This is the feeling I have. The freedom to explore words and associations and thoughts and processes. Unbidden. Completely free. Completely free to associate. To think. To read a word, to understand it, to put words together. No constrictors. Nobody saying, ‘That's bad. You can't do that. You can't think that.' I found that freedom in literature….And I tell you, I thank [my teacher]...That was just phenomenal....I'm...still emotional today about it. It was just mind-blowing."

For Arthur, the exhilarating freedom of his choosing Biccaccio's Decameron to read had translated into a Joycean epiphany--"the sudden awareness...caused by a simple, casual event that takes on a new and intense meaning" (Epiphany, 1993, p. 70). His teacher had not criticized his choice of reading material. That had validated his choice. His epiphany had told him that he could reach into the universe of literature and choose what he pleased.

Theme Eight. Arthur was encouraged to become a creative writer through events in school that promoted the satisfaction and excitement of receiving sound direction about how to write well from compassionate teachers. He referred to English teachers from grades nine to thirteen who likely would have agreed with The Ministry's following comments:

By reflecting on their ideas and using language to express them, students become more adept at expressive [and] artistic...thought and broaden their foundation of written...use....Feedback from others...helps students assess their own language development. This awareness motivates students to...manipulate language for...expression. (1996a, pp. 2-3; 1996b, pp. 2-3; 1996c, p. 3)

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