Barack Obama is not just the first black man to become President, he is the most literary writer to become President. Other Presidents have written books, usually after leaving office and even then with the help of a “real writer” to shape the narrative and smooth out wrinkles in the prose. But Obama became a writer before he ever became a politician–way back when he was in law school.
Obama exhibits the habits of a writer. He keeps a notebook; he keeps a journal. He files away memorable events and hopes they will become anecdotes to illustrate a point in an argument, or represent a moment in time. As a writing teacher, one of my greatest pleasures is watching my students undergo this transformative process.
“I’ve thought of writing about my grandmother, but never before had a reason to,” Aaron told me last semester. What he wrote will now become a part of his family history. We all have stories to tell and simply need to be bitten by the writing bug to realize the potential power our words have over others and over our perception of ourselves.
Obama is now an important model for writing students. In the introduction to “Dreams from My Father,” he tells us that his autobiography started out as a group of essays about race, using personal anecdote as illustration. Like Obama, students often begin to write one way and grow into something different.
High school seniors usually begin their college essays by “telling” the college what they think they want to hear. They enumerate accomplishments in hackneyed prose, devoid of the singular “voice” that will set their dreams apart from everyone else’s.
Like Obama, students rewrite, forcing themselves to “show” rather than “tell,” developing voice and humor in the process. Obama began his first book with a “list of topics” tracing an “intellectual journey,” and ended with “a record of a personal, interior journey—a boy’s search for his father, and through that search a workable meaning for his life as a black American.”
That journey encapsulates the power of personal narrative, a power I’ve seen played out continually in my classrooms. But for the first time now we have a President whose writing process helped him to understand himself and his place in society.
Will having a writer as President make a difference in writing classrooms? I think it will. At a speech last summer given at a local high school, Obama was asked about his views of the National Writing Project and the role writing could play in students’ lives. He responded by praising his writing experience as a process through which he was able to come to terms with uncomfortable realities in his own past, a process invaluable to his growth. His example might make classroom writing “hip.”
Writing is not a path to self-congratulation, but a way to recognize truths, no matter how painful. As Aaron, Kate, and other students have discovered, those truths are empowering as well as humbling. We all admire Obama’s combination of humility and confidence, in words and actions. Those are the lessons of a writer, one who now resides in the White House—and maybe even in your own home.
What Kids Are Reading
This weekly column will look at lists of books kids are reading in various categories, including grade level, book genre, and data from booksellers. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com list of children’s books on writing.
Books about the Writing Life
1. Live Writing: Breathing Life into Your Words by Ralph Fletcher
2. My Life Unscripted: Who’s Writing Your Life? by Tricia Goyer
3. Writing Your Life: Autobiographical Writing Activities for Young People by Mary Borg
4. Real-Life Writing Activities for Grades 4-9 by Cherlyn Sunflower
5. Welcome to Your Life: Writings for the Heart of Young America by David Haynes and Julie Landsman
6. Be a Writer: Your Guide to the Writing Life by Steve Peha and Margot Carmichael Lester
7. Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercise that are Not Personal, Not Introspective, Not Boring! by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller
8. Creating Ideas: Discover Writing Topics in Daily Life by Gayle L. Watson
9. A Fresh Look at Writing by Donald H. Graves
10. Seize the Story: A Handbook for Teens Who Like to Write by Victoria Hanley
