Reaching For Gold

Too often teachers, parents, and students focus only on grades. Grades are important, absolutely, but they should never be one's primary or single goal. In terms of writing, why do we write? Or why should we write? Before answering, let me ask another question: why do we talk to one another? To communicate.

So, what should be our goal in writing? 

Communication.

Most athletes focus on winning medals. That's good. But researchers have proven time and time again, if winning gold is an athlete's only goal, failure is often the end result.

What if an athlete never wins? What often follows is a feeling of failure. 

Even some gold medalists end up failing in life. Why? Because winning gold alone is not enough. We need a fuller life than medals can ever provide. 

Similarly, many highly successful entertainers, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Whitney Houston included have had their days of stardom only to squander their talents afterward in self doubt, drugs, and suicide.

Many students, though most not to the same extreme, suffer from similar highs and lows. Why? Because they have never been taught to look beyond the all-important GRADE. 

As a result, those who struggle with learning difficulties constantly feel that they will never succeed, "So why try." And some, who are considered winners, never feel satisfied in their accomplishments, because there is always someone better than they are. 

Members of both these groups often suffer silently, their caregivers seldom noticing or giving the help they need, so they suffer unnecessarily. And sometimes succumb to self-doubt.

Grades are important, that is true. But getting an A should never be 'all or nothing'.

By helping young writers to focus on communication, we empower them. Help them to concentrate on what they think and feel, rather than success or failure, and we help them to get more involved in the natural process of writing and the world around them.

Help young writers to answer such questions as "What am I trying to say?" and "How can I make what I write clearer?" - this is true gold.