You kids at Bear River High School need to stop your principal in the hallway this fall and thank him.
Seriously. While you were enjoying baseball, or the beach, or chilling out, Gary Allen spent his vacation going to school, four days a week for four weeks at Ogden High School. His daughter is in a basketball tournament and he's not getting to see her play, either.
That's how hard he was working.
All to teach you how to write.
Can't argue with the man's priorities.
I make my living writing, so I must approve that Allen and a bunch of other teachers and school administrators from all over the Wasatch Front spent a month learning to use writing to teach every other class on the list.
Like how?
I asked Tom Paskill, drafting teacher at Fremont and Bonneville high schools. His reply: "You've got to be able to write a specification book to build a building."
Natalie Wilson, who teaches family and consumer science at T.H. Bell Junior High, said, "I think it teaches them that it's (writing) an active part of life. It's part of everyday life to understand what others are writing."
For example, to help kids deal with life.
"I had a student come in and she was mad one day. She was ready to punch out this girl, and I said, 'Sit down and start writing.' So she sat for 20 minutes. She was able to vent."
Wilson, Allen and Paskill were at the annual National Writing Project site at Ogden High School, one of more than 200 around the nation.
The project is supported in Top of Utah by Weber State University. Margaret Rostkowski, who taught at OHS for decades, is one of two coordinators and said the project doesn't teach writing. It teaches teachers how to use writing to teach other subjects.
This isn't texting and e-mail writing. This is sitting down, collecting your thoughts, pondering meanings and writing them out. This is learning to think about subjects and express your thoughts clearly.
Margaret and I already use writing for other things. We help run Weber Reads specifically to apply great writing to everyday life in Utah.
Last year we used "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" to spark furious community discussion over language and racism. This year we're continuing that theme with Frederick Douglass' writings.
Writing well helps you think well.
"What language do you think in?" said Brian Fendrick, who teaches journalism and Advanced Placement English at Fremont High. "I believe you can't be a great thinker without being a great writer. The better you can express yourself in writing, the better you can reason."
That's why Allen spent his summer vacation talking writing, studying writing and doing a lot of his own writing. He wants his students to think, and to think, they must write, and so must he.
"I just believe it's got to come from the top down. I've read enough reports and seen enough studies that there's a percentage that's fairly high, where literacy and communication are what students are least prepared in."
He wants his entire school writing in the coming year. Not only will students do better in their courses, he said, but they'll do better on standardized and core tests, the sort of things that give the school higher ratings.
If that goal means losing his summer, he considers it a good investment.
Besides, he's still got four whole days this week. "Then it's back at it."
Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can call him at 801-625-4232 or e-mail ctrentelman@standard.net. He also blogs at www.standard.net.
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