Many years ago when I was teaching high school English in rural upstate South Carolina, I taught all three of the district’s superintendent’s children—two daughters and a son.
The older daughter in many ways represented both a uniquely smart and hard-working student and the paradox of the perfect student.
These were the early days of me learning how to teach writing well; these were the early days when I taught with a sort of earnest zeal that can never make up for the horrific blunders I imposed on several years of students.
Setting aside everything I did wrong—reminding us all that learning to write and learning how to teach writing are journeys—I was from the earliest days as a teacher firmly committed to students experiencing writer’s workshop and writing often, authentically, and with multiple drafts for each essay.
Most of my students then and even now have had very little experience with drafting, navigating substantive and challenging feedback, and teaching/learning experiences that sit outside the norm of grading and evaluation.
This older daughter was the top student in her class; she went on to excel in college and eventually eared a doctorate.
But she wasn’t the perfect student because she was fortunate to be so smart and having been raised in a very privileged home.
From the beginning, she simply revised her essays and resubmitted them CONTINUE READING: The Perfect Trap – radical eyes for equity