Week One Make Up: Writing Experiences

One of my most traumatic writing experiences occurred at a very young age. In third grade, we were given a short story assignment. It was to be a page long narrative or fictional account. I wrote about a lost cat and the (quick, page long) adventures “Puffy” experienced before he found his way home. I worked almost for three nights straight on the story, showing only the final product to my Mom for a spell check.

I turned in my story and waited for my teacher's excitement. That night, my parents were called. My teacher asked them a lot of questions about my story. The next day I got my assignment back-all that was written on the page was a huge, giant red C! I started crying, crumpled the story up in my backpack, and refused to speak for the rest of the day. When I got home, I asked my Mom why my teacher didn't like my story! On the phone the previous night, my teacher had accused my parents of writing the “Puffy” story. She didn't believe I was capable of that level of writing, and was completely convinced someone else had written “The Adventures of Puffy”.

This happened over fifteen years ago. I can still see that paper in my head, with the giant, nasty red C declaring itself on the page. I was upset about the grade, but that wasn't the zinger. What really hurt was that my own teacher didn't believe in my writing potential! After this experience, I did the bare minimum requirement on all my writing assignments that year. In my teacher's mind, these other writing samples probably confirmed her suspicions. In my head, she wasn't worthy of my Chaucer like writing abilities!

In schools today, plagiarism is still a very serious issue. As an educator, I understand her concern regarding the authenticity of my story. However, this was the first writing assignment in the class, she never talked to me about the details of my story, and she refused to participate in any further discussions regarding this assignment. Beyond the fear of plagiarism, this teacher gave me a very clear disdain for writing, a hatred that took almost five years to get through. It wasn't until eighth grade that I was able to rebound. I documented the ten page story of a farm girl and her mother as they try to overcome their disputes while living with the grandmother in Iowa. It had all the makings of a great Lifetime movie. My teacher loved it, read it to the class, and asked to keep a copy of it. His support, coupled with my parents assurance, had finally erased years of writing discomfort.

The moral of the story: As educators, we don't always know what our students are capable of in regards to writing. Some of the best stories have come as surprises to both audiences and authors. On the same hand, we need to be equally careful regarding what our students are NOT capable of writing. The lean one way or the other could produce another “Puffy” controversy.