After over 40 years in the field of education, I feel that I have just gotta say No, NO, NOOOO!!! In the summer of 1995, I was driving into the city of Washington, DC reflecting on the writing journey I had embarked. I had become a 1995 National Writing Project Fellow. This journey was changing me in ways that I never thought possible. Not only was I willing to share my writing with the warm and supportive groups but sometimes with the unfriendly and daring ones too. That summer, I earned and learned to use my "writing voice" and I learned a lot more. I created a writing philosophy that was and still is grounded in the teachings of many writing gurus llike Nancie Atwell, Lucy Caulkins and Donald Graves.
At the end of that summer, I was able to stand with conviction and say, "I am a writer and I believe that writing is the most important skill a teacher can share with her students."
Today, those pompous, power wielding, decision making tyrants on the Hill are now saying that this program and others just as important are no longer needed. How preposterous!! The National Writing Project has trained thousands of teachers all over America and the Carribean to become reflective writers who can share with their students their love for writing and encourage creativity and community of writers who can voice their opinions today as students and as adults in the future.
Finally, writers are readers. Writers write about what they read. Aren't we always saying the reading scores in this country are too low? Don't we need to improve the reading test scores? Why are we destroying a program that promotes the very skills that we need to improve?
I just gotta say that it makes no sense to me!
