Rasmussen
Bryan Rasmussen
John Pahl
English 111 Honors
21 November 2011
The Ups and Downs of Education
The worst thing a teacher can do when attempting to improve the skills of a young writer
is to put too much emphasis on the grammatical precision of an essay, rather than looking at the
main ideas of a writer, and judging the essay on the thought and analysis which was provided
within it. This often happens in high school English classes, teachers think that the only way a
student can become an accomplished writer is to teach them every rule that has ever been
invented for writing. When a teacher can look past minor imperfections in a paper, and see the
ideas of the writer and grade the paper on its content rather than solely on its presentation, that
teacher is capable of not only producing skilled writers, but also allowing their students to enjoy
their writing. However, if a teacher refuses to look past the basic grammar and see the bigger
picture of a paper, they run the risk of inhibiting the creativity of a writer and making them hate
writing all together.
Throughout my educational career I have had both kinds of teachers, those who spur
creativity and freedom through their teaching, and those who cause writers to be cautious and
restrictive because of a fear of failure. One way that teachers allow students liberty and freedom
in their writings is to have them do assignments that are not turned in:
Students writing for themselves will write many things that they would never write on a
paper to be handed in, once they have learned (sometimes it takes awhile) that the teacher
means what he says about papers being private (Holt 454)
Another technique that is sometimes used by teachers to try to spark new ideas and creativity in
their students writings is to provide time during class to write freely for a given amount of time,
without fear of improper grammar or poor spelling. Well-known critic of education John Holt
used a similar strategy in his classes. Holt says he “divided the class into teams, and told them
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when I said ‘Go’, they were to start writing”. My eleventh grade English teacher employed a
very similar strategy in his teaching of writing.
During my junior year of high school my English teacher was Bill Strong. Mr. Strong
used many various techniques to promote creativity in his students and at the same time build
strong writing skills. While emphasis on grammar was still present in class, it was not the center
focus of writing. Mr. Strong made the main focus of our class, which was titled “American
Literature”, the content and creativity of our writing. We often had class-long discussions where
we would do nothing more than present our ideas to the class for feedback. He always made sure
that feedback was positive, with the goal of helping one another find confidence in their own
ideas and also finding ways to expand on those ideas and take them to the next level. I found this
to be very effective in helping me write creatively and develop new ideas. Mr. Strong was also a
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