Warning: Rant Ahead Re: Teachers and Parents Making Their Kids Hate School

Last year I blogged a rant about teachers (and parents) who punish a misbehaving child by making them read.  ("No, you can't go play.  You sit in that corner and read a book or something!")  And then they wonder why the child develops a hatred for reading!

The same thing is happening when it comes to writing.  How many of you have had to "write lines" for being bad?  (Does the image of Bart Simpson doing his mandatory 100 come to mind?)  And now teachers are wondering why the kids' scores in writing are so poor.  It's because they HATE to write! 

On the other hand, texting is fun.  It allows you to use shortcuts that don't grade you for spelling, punctuation, or capitalization.  Plus, you can write what you want, rather than page after page of what others want you to write.

I'm hearing more and more teachers talk about how they can't get kids to write "decently" (meaning content, not handwriting.)  I wonder how many potential authors are losing their love of writing before it's given the chance to grow.

I also wonder how I might have turned out if I had been "punished" by writing pages of worthless sentences.