Thread by @biblioracle

When I sat down to consider writing what would become Why They Can't Write, I thought it would be a book of pedagogy, an articulation of a particular philosophy towards teaching writing and then the practical application of that philosophy. I soon realized that wasn't sufficient.

As I considered the "problem" of teaching writing, I became more and more concerned about the atmosphere and conditions under which students were attempting to learn. These things appeared fundamentally hostile to the goals I have for students in learning to write.

For ex., one of the most important skills for a writer is the development of "agency," the notion that you have control over your message and messaging, and that your work can influence others. It is a belief in the efficacy of writing in general and your own writing in specific.

I realized that when it came to writing, students had almost no practice with building a sense of "agency" over their work. It was almost entirely foreign, even excluded from their experiences. It was often the opposite, writing as in exercise in compliance.

There were other things poisoning the learning atmosphere: surveillance, standardization, technology hype (solutionism), education folklore, etc... These were all far bigger problems that deficiencies in curriculum, even if those deficiencies existed.

Those "problems" exert tremendous control over curriculum. Even if teachers want to privilege the values I think are important, those factors stand in the way. They are structural barriers to progress.

One thing I hoped we were learning in this pandemic is how important the best possible atmosphere for learning is to student "success." The consequences of disrupted school are apparent, and occur across multiple dimensions.

I am dismayed, however, to see the debate devolve to "how far behind" students are falling. Behind what? Exactly? Where should students be in the middle of a pandemic? What does it mean to be "behind?" What is the approach to "catching up?"

The pandemic has merely intensified the already existing systemic inequalities in our schools. The students struggling the most with online schooling were likely the ones struggling the most before the pandemic. They labor under the worst burdens.

We need to address the learning atmosphere, the conditions under which the work is done. This period should have made plain how important this is, and yet, we're managing to have the same old conversations.

I think maybe there is a fundamental problem in that journalists cover "schools" and in my view "schooling" and "learning" are growing increasingly far apart, so from the perspective of an instructor, all that focus on "schools" is missing the mark.

If anybody asked me, I could give a blueprint to improving student writing in large school districts with a diverse array of students that could be reduced down to a single page of bullet points, but it starts with fundamentally rethinking the the learning atmosphere.

If you want student writing to improve: 1. Make sure they're well fed. 2. Make sure they're well housed. 3. Reduce the student to teacher ratio to disciplinary maximums (let alone recommended levels). 4. Ditch all standardized assessments of writing.

5. Allow students to write for authentic audiences in authentic situations. 6. Provide formative rather than summative feedback (ditch traditional grading). 7. Emphasize metacognitive reflection and transfer from experience to experience.

I'm repeating everything I wrote in my books, but the point is that we know what will work, it is a matter of will and resources at this point. The talk about behind this, behind that is a distraction. We know that too many students work in an inhospitable atmosphere. Fix that.

Once you fix that atmosphere, let students work from a place of agency and efficacy. That's what undergirds every experience in The Writer's Practice. It works. I promise. But do we have the will? penguinrandomhouse.com/books/566892/t…

Seriously, anyone know how I can induce a school system to at least experiment with an approach that emphasizes student agency and efficacy? Somebody's gotta know somebody.