Helping Teens Explore Identities Every week, I teach personal essay writing to middle schoolers at The TEAK Fellowship, and I think a lot about how identities are formed. This week, I wanted to find an essay by a trans author for them to read. This is an identity marker many students--and many adults--still feel confused about. Confusion is not unhealthy; ignorance is. One job of a writer, and a teacher, and maybe just a decent person, is to do the work to clear ignorance cobwebs from our eyes. It can be messy. We need to see them I spend a lot of time with teens, listening to them, thinking about them and what they need. Whenever possible, I laugh with them, allowing them to poke fun at adults, myself included, our hypocrisies and short-comings. There's lots of material there. I read great essays from them on the ways we've not stacked up, everything from leaving water running while we brush our teeth (though we ask them not to) to insulting their weight (when they weren't upset about it) to berating them for getting F's without asking about their days. Their criticism is for a purpose, not superfluous. They are in the process of deciding which adult identities are worth growing into. That said, I believe more than ever, our teens need to see their teachers (and, frankly, as many adults in their world as possible) stand up against erasure and misbegotten hatred of individuals and groups. Our teens need to know, if it was them at risk, that their identity, their selves, would be protected, too. Seen. Celebrated, especially. Art for all our identities That's what art, and in particular the art of the personal essay, is for (or one of the things, anyway). When we write, we look into identity closely, to understand how a person comes to be themselves, what has shaped them. To share that through style and craft. To open yourself up to others. To transmute pain. No matter who teens are in the process of becoming, each needs to know they belong--somewhere Continue Reading …
personal essay writing
Indelible Moment
King's "Letter" as Life-Changer I don't remember the moment when I first read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail," but I quickly became a groupie. I think it should be required reading before you can register to vote. Stick with me here-- your college essay connection comes later. The letter is particularly, though perhaps too cordially, critical of the white moderate. They/we, then as now, did not seize the historical moment. We who had the power to loudly and unequivocally announce opposition (with our very bodies) to ongoing hate crimes, despicable marginalization and economic exclusion suffered by blacks-- said nothing, or didn't say it forcefully enough. It was not the right moment. You have let my ass DOWN, he tells us. Your lukewarm support is worse than outright rejection. You can hear him talking-- everyone knows the sound of his voice. But are we lulled by it, or do we realize THIS IS OUR MOMENT TO BE OF USE? THIS is the moment to say something, this very one, flying by. Good writing stops you in your tracks. I teach the "Letter" this time every year to the 7th grade students at the TEAK Fellowship in my personal essay writing class. They munch Cheez-its while they parse his exquisite grammar and syntax, the nuances of his message. This is not an essay of the Dream. This is the essay of necessity. It is really about our current moment: the silence of good people is worse than anything. ... The best writing contains at least one moment that causes us to turn inward, and, if listened to, can change our lives. ... King's goodwill is admirable, his anger carefully packaged into bad-ass, stinging, argumentatively impeccable prose. If we look closely enough, we are indicted. We should not feel good reading the letter. We should have a moment when we shudder, and peel off a layer of denial. In the letter (I'll link it all over, in case you forget to click through) King explains the need for and Continue Reading …
Prompts for Your Snow Day
Dear Snow Day, and Your Pile of Prompts! Hey, Snow Day, let's tell it like it is before we start with the prompts: Everybody loves you, I think. Especially the mayor-- you make him popular. Which makes you more popular than basically anyone ever. You make school children freak out with joy and relief. Most of us stress-balls appreciate when Mother Nature throws us a bone, and gives us a free pass to play hooky, and play-- and in this case, respond to a prompt. By choice-- can you believe it?-- some of us weirdos use the extra time you give us to write. BECAUSE WE LIKE IT, AND IT MAKES US FEEL ALIVE. It makes us feel as powerful as a blizzard, as impactful as bad weather, as connected to everything. In case you were wondering. So for those folks "stuck" at home, who are not "busy" binging on video games, pretending to clean, or youtube-ing until their eyes cross, here are some personal essay writing prompts. Courtesy of Essay Intensive and our partner, Snow Day, who really looks out for our creative well-being. These five writing prompts were all derived from an article on how to escape an avalanche (literally, but consider the metaphorical implications). Please check out the details of avalanche-escapsim here. Then, get to pleasurable work. The Writing Prompts Write about a time you got snowed under.-- literally or metaphorically. Write about a time you had to thrash to save your life. If spitting helps us know which way is down, write about not knowing which way is up and what to do about it. Write about something you witnessed in extreme weather-- say, your neighbor's skirt blowing over her head, or someone on a sled being towed by a car. Beacon, Probe, Flotation--respond to these words any way you like. OR Write a short essay in three parts, each part themed around one of these words. How to Deal with Snow Day Prompts: Freewrite-- set your timer: 5-20 minutes per prompt. And just keep going if you hear the beep but you're on Continue Reading …