Teach your child to make a mess    065

The whole plot of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance hinges on “a most ingenious paradox”. Fortunately everything works out well in the end. Perhaps your children today, in the subject of English, could also benefit from a paradox, and here it is: ‘If you want to get better at writing then stop trying’. Whenever I have new students arrive I always have a look at the essays they have written and sometimes I get them to do a small piece of writing for me on the spot.

Some children try ever so hard, stopping frequently to correct errors, and even using white-out to make it look better. They want to do the very best they can—and that attitude is commendable. But, paradoxically, they will do worse and the reason is simple. Writing essays is very creative and to get good ideas you have to relax, and that means going ahead and making mistakes, going with the flow, and getting on with it.

The evidence for this is relatively easy to find. Actual HSC written essays, that’s photocopies of children’s exam booklets, can be purchased. Looking at essays that have been graded as being of high standard one feature is very apparent—the almost complete lack of any changes or corrections in the writing. Top Year 12 students are able to put an enormous amount of unaltered text on the page, and very quickly too.

Also available in print are the handwritten first drafts of famous authors. One such is from the historical novelist, Patrick O’Brian. It is amazing how clean the first draft is, that is the actual first creation of the text. Of course later on everything is meticulously edited over and over but the point is that creativity is characterised by a relatively smooth and uninterrupted flow. This is the way it must be.

So you could have a look at the first draft writing of your son or daughter. You should encourage them to just keep writing, and this is especially important during examinations because there is no time to go back and edit. Even if there were time it would probably have a negative result because the student would be upset for the next piece of writing. Stopping during first draft writing increases anxiety, wastes time, and spoils fluency and creative continuity.

Over the last decade or so educators and others are beginning to realise that some students operate under high levels of pressure to be successful. This pressure can come from parents and perhaps even from teachers constantly praising children and even giving them undeserved marks. Some of these ideas are explored in an article by Anna Patty, education editor for The Sydney Morning Herald (Helicopter parents not doing enough to let children fail, 2 Apr 2010, p. 1). She quotes research which suggests that students entering university have elevated levels of self esteem leading to a lack of persistence in the face of unexpected academic difficulties. The article quotes Rod Kefford, headmaster of Barker College: “… we have to let them [school students] fail. It is only through our failings in the learning process that we learn anything”. Dr Kefford pointed out, according to the article, that schools needed to give children the confidence to risk failure in order to encourage more creative thinking.

So, when your child has exams coming up, and that happens at least twice every year, the expectation should be on doing one’s best. After organising notes, and spending time studying, your child should then be able to confidently write an essay answer, or a short answer for that matter. The essential frame of mind is relaxation while writing. If your child notices that a rather stupid paragraph has just been written, the correct attitude is: ‘Oh well, perhaps I will write another stupid paragraph’. After writing a quite disappointing essay your child may very well be surprised at the good mark the essay receives. Relaxing during exams has other benefits which I have covered in ‘Success = U + U’, also in this book.

All content copyright—Mark Thackray—Australian Educational Services