Response to "Non-Magical Thinking: Presenting Writing Developmentally in Schools" by Janet Emig

#3 blog response

Though I haven’t checked my notes, I would think that Janet Emig is a contemporary of Peter Elbow.  I hear the same plea in this article as I hear often in Elbow’s books about “teaching” writing.  Elbow served as one of the foundational influences for Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington.  He and a group of Berkeley professors had ideas similar to Janet Emig on how education, learning, and, yes, writing should happen.  Emig reminds us that children need frequent opportunities to practice writing and that teachers should be fellow practitioners.  Elbow started a writing group where the primary idea was that writers should write wretchedly before they write well.  I tell my 7^th grade English students this often.  That is not surprising.  What is most unfortunate is that I never share this with my Ancient Literature students.  They must learn foundational texts in nine months.  I haven’t figured out where to fit in wretched writing time.  I haven’t figured out where to fit in multiple narrative writing experiences.  I’m assuming Emig, like Elbow, had much more freedom and time than we Idaho public school teachers.  Nonetheless, she reminds me to practice various all modes:  poetry, drama, short story, and essays (like those of Montagne) as well as the academic essay and reader responses I drill into my students.  Another takeaway is that I myself need to write, “frequently and widely.”  Well, there is great freedom in honoring time restraints and I see that writing frequently and widely will only barely happen if I become more organized and routinized.