I think that there are two problems with the way writing is done in schools. One is the assumption that you can give an assignment, and anyone can then blurt out onto the page enough in a 20-minute period, or a 15-minute period, or half hour whatever the period us. I can’t do that. So, you give kids a topic, and you give them a time. And within that topic and that time, you’re saying, “Do something creative.” For most kids, that’s enough to stop them right there.
I would rather have kids have journals that they can take home and write on when they feel like it. Writing in a schoolroom, under the teacher’s eye, is a horrible way to write. I know very few professional writers who, under those conditions, could write anything worth anything.
