National Writing Project

I’m a teacher. It’s one of the most important things I’ve done with my life. I’m also a writer, but to my surprise, writing is the freckled faced stepchild of education. Sadly, in my teaching education, writing was loosely and poorly lumped with reading. In the schools, writing assignments are met with groans from teachers and students because it has often degenerated to checking for nothing more than correctly placed capitals and periods.

And then came National Writing Project, and for me, Great Valley Writing Project in the San Joaquin Valley of California.
These are groups of teachers who recognize the empowerment of writing. These are teachers who research and put into practice the best methods for helping young minds to express what they are learning, thinking and feeling.

National Writing Project is responsible for: Summer institutes that offer teachers the time and community to research good writing pedagogy and develop best practices, Family writing nights at schools across the nation where parents and children come together to think, write and share what they’ve written together; young writer’s symposiums that offer workshops to students that open genres and methods for which there isn’t time in the traditional school year; even migrant summer camps that help English language learners to express themselves. That only scratches the surface.

Americans have fought and written ourselves into freedom. Please take a moment to contact your federal legislators or the Office of Education, or both to support the funding of the National Writing Project. This light needs to remain, it is one of the best uses of our federal funds.