A friend of mine told me a story about her son, who was a reluctant writer as a middle schooler. In fact, she says, “When he was 12 years old, I paid him to write something for me—just to prove that he could!”
It turns out he was a fine writer. He just hadn’t figured out yet was he wanted to write about yet. Then, he got into music and began writing music reviews. He attended a progressive high school, and the teachers there encouraged him to pursue his passion. He got some of his work published in a local music magazine and made it the focus of his senior project. By the end of his senior year, he’d written 67 music reviews.
* * *
The problem with standards is that by imposing a minimum, you are at the same time imposing a maximum. If you say to your 10th grade English class, “Write a five-page essay analyzing Joseph Heller’s use irony in Catch-22,” there’s pretty much zero chance that anyone will go above and beyond that.
If you say to a student, “Your assignment is to write 67 music reviews,” he’s going to look at you like you’re insane.
But if you help kids identify what they love to do and support them in pursuing it, you will be amazed at the kind of work they’ll produce. The key is, you have to let go. You have to let the students set their own standards, because the standards they set for themselves will far surpass anything you try to impose upon them.
