Speaking of writing, there’s an interesting article in The Atlantic, The Writing Revolution. It’s worth reading. It’s a little disturbing that there’s a fair amount of hyperventilation about the beauty of writing as an intellectual development tool. Nobody mentions the obvious: Writing is thinking. You can think without writing, but not write without thinking. (Well, maybe excepting Facebook and Twitter.)
My wife Beverly, a teacher, taught thinking through writing a couple of decades ago with great success, though she says that today teaching to the various mandated tests would make such open-ended instruction difficult. Too bad we have to call teaching writing a Revolution.
Nice article, and one that left me saying, “Yes, well…and you’re surprised because…?” Of course, I’m a relic from the days of diagramming sentences on the blackboard and vocabulary flashcards, the days when spelling counted and Latin was required for two years in high school. (Iowa, 1950s and 1960s.)
There’s nothing wrong with Paulo Freire, but it’s always seemed just slightly ironic to me that in foregoing the banking theory of education, many teachers left their students impoverished.
I’m probably in that same cohort. Latin, diagramming. As with much of adolescence, I thought it all boring and an unreasonable use of my time then, but now value the lessons learned…