Oi vey!

I just reread the post I made about students being obsessed with creativity, and how badly I seemed to condemn it, and how that is so NOT me, and how the most recent post shows that.

So let me lay down a few truths.

I love creativity. I am all for incorporating more creativity in school. But since I'm just a student-teacher, and my time for the unit has been allotted, and I have to finish by a certain time and I have to make sure students write complete short stories, I felt the need to focus on the parts of it. Also, that is the way I was taught to write in the workshop I took in college. Creativity was secondary to form. And...I liked it that way, because it taught me to put my fragmented ideas into a sensible, resonating, structured piece. I was happier with it when it was organized and made sense, rather than when it was original and jumpy and twisted and...just didn't really seem believable.

However, I want to be a writer, and I recognized that it was in the area of structure, not ideas for the heart and soul of a story, that I needed the help. So perhaps I found that class more rewarding than others did, and that method of teaching more helpful than I would have a sort of "ooooh be creative, have fun, write about bunnies taking over the world!" kind of focus.

So...I am going to ask my cooperating teacher if I can have one more period to talk about the stories with the class. So that they understand the need for depth, heart, soul, and feeling, and not just the structure. If I had more time, we would have spent it delving into the content of the stories and not just their structure. I also probably wouldn't include as many assignments in the unit - the poetry and short stories I would absolutely keep, and the monologues too, but I would eliminate the advice columns (though I think I have a rather brilliant lesson with which to teach them) and the editorials. I might sort that into a journalism/nonfiction unit instead.

I just don't want anyone to think (you know, in the off-chance that someone is actually reading this) that I discourage creativity. How could I be a writer and do that? It must have been the particular mood I was in that influenced that little speech. I absolutely encourage imagination and invention. I want my students to like writing. I just don't want them to go around writing things that don't make sense, and, I guess last week, that was more important than anything.

So go ahead. Go write your stories about pink bunnies taking over the world - just make sure they are compelling characters with a clear conflict that is resolved by the end!