Digigran

The number of postings I've read recently about the anxieties attendant on a) being an academic and b) needing to write about what you do, whilst having avery critical and self-critical audience, has made me think long and hard again about the way we approach the teaching of writing, particularly in school.
When writing is going well, it simply flies from the fingers, as fast as pen or keys can manage it. When it isn't flowing then nothing can be more dispiriting, drawn out or boring. I conjure up instantly pictures of the many children in school I have observed sighing over their work with arms folded across their papers, eyes down, simply begging for a bell to end their misery. The sheer drag of the pen, the vastness of the expanse of paper stretching before them are a penal sentence none of them think they deserve. This photo by Doisneau always represents this for me- even though I know his photos were always staged
- a bit like Dr Joolz's images of sweets. See below:












I started to write this post at the end of March and then my other life seemed to intervene- I had some real writing to do, some entertaining, visits from Alexander and gardening to sort out so I never quite got back to finishing this post. (Oh, and a sick sister to visit and a funeral to attend- though these two things are not connected at all.)
Meanwhile all those angst ridden academics were having the time of their lives in St Francisco see Dr Kate and so obviously the writing came in full flow. I'm so envious . The messages being sent home were a bit daunting- Kate cites Colin and Michele's dictum that you're only as good as your last post- so what a poor out-dated thing am I, then - a thing of rags and patches witho new thoughts.Still I mean to press on with this stuff about why people write and how we get kids to do authentic stuff in school.
I went to a presentation by the QCA about the new big ideas in curriculum development which seemed as if it would be addressing the future and the impact of changes in the way we communicate and develop ourselves through education and then I found that everybodyelse there seemed driven by very old ideas like employability, functionality and the gold-standard of the current examination system. So how will this big idea ever get them writing in school and more importantly, help them to get satisfaction from what they do? I agree with Dr Kate that BLOGs are about affinity spaces so if there are people still reading this BLOG who share my concerns and have new thoughts to add to the debate on writing please join in. I have just written an editorial for English in Education's Summer Issue and I intend to get this ionto the NATE website as soon as Easter has been and gone. My own experienceof BLOGGING is that it does stimulate the desire to write and the potential of a real and perhaps critical audience makes me revise and reedit as I go along. I sometimes get scared and inhibited too- but then I read someone else's post and want to respond and the delight in writing starts again. This makes me think that giving our kids more internet space and reasons to write for others would help to give that practicein expression and position taking that no amount of functional literacy delivered in packages can possibly do.

And so to the Bumbo. See picture at the top of this post and here.
I sometimes forget the purposeof this BLOG is to explore my new state of being a gran and revert to my other self, especially when I am feeling left outof the big academic scene .
Well, I am still learning. Alexander came to visit over the weekend with his dad and brought one of these with him! Yes he did enjoy the big touch and feel book about the Wheels on the Bus which I had bought- but the world he is growing up in has many other ways of presenting meanings. He sat inhis Bumbo and olayed with the remote control on the television too. He is now just four months old!






So how is the curriculum that is being devised going to work out for him? Will he still be writing A level essaysin 2004 or will the curriculum really have evolved by then? Answers on a postcard to...