Every Mark on the Page

The discrepancy that surfaces on the first page of Ms. Cusumano's article is thought-provoking: ninety percent of children come to school believing they can write, yet a vastly smaller number of parents would seem to agree with their child's assessment. Why such a discrepancy?

Certainly, a large part of this difference of opinion lies in the definition of "writing." Is writing the ability to draw the symbols we use as letters? the ability to put marks on a page? I was helped tremendously by Ms. Cusamuno's assertion of the latter -- her borrowed comment that "every mark a child makes on a paper is made for a purpose." The article reeked of common sense -- that writing in a child's eyes is a combination of all writing and drawing ability in an effort to communicate to others. Related to my previous post, the importance of story trumps the importance of phonetics, correct spelling, and artistic convention (both in writing and in drawing).

In an age when parents seem increasingly neurotic about educational benchmarks, it was refreshing to see an author treat children as children -- and even more, children with something to communicate. Even though my tongue will bleed for biting on occasion, I hope that as a parent and educator, I am content to allow students to make mistakes in order to communicate a story they are itching to tell. As screenwriting teacher Robert McKee says, "people don't care if a screenwriter comes to them with chicken scratch written on toilet paper -- if it's a good story, they will work to make sure it gets told." Writing is about more than convention -- it's about community, and helping children tell their stories is an admirable goal.