Two hundred universities across the country are bases for the National Writing Project, and George Mason University is one of the oldest and most active of them. That will change as a result of the spending bill signed into law on April 15. Cuts to programs designed to improve the quality of our teachers — the single biggest factor in the quality of a child’s education — are short-sighted economies at a time when our country needs to invest in the future of our children. Other teacher-improvement programs arguably as deserving as the NWP saw their funding cut as well: Reading is Fundamental, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and Teach for America. But none has the depth and breadth of the NWP, nor its connection to colleges.
The irony is that the bill’s intention is to eliminate earmarks. Aren’t earmarks state-based or district-based projects supported by congressmen eager for re-election? By that definition, NWP funding is not an earmark. The $25.6 million annual outlay that has helped support NWP for more than 20 years goes to the program’s national office in California for distribution to university sites in every state in the nation. Each year, professional development programs originating at these sites reach 130,000 teachers who, in turn, teach 1.4 million students.
| What kids are reading |
| This weekly column looks at lists of books kids are reading in various categories. Information on the books below came from Amazon.com’s list of best-sellers for children. |
| Children’s books on writing |
| 1. Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine (Ages 9-12) |
| 2. Unjournaling by Dawn DiPrince (Young adult) |
| 3. Show, Don’t Tell!: Secrets of Writing by Josephine Nobisso and Eva Montanari (Ages 9-12) |
| 4. Rip the Page!: Adventures in Creative Writing by Karen Benke (Young adult) |
| 5. Seize the Story by Victoria Hanley (Young adult) |
| 6. Writing Smarts; A Girl’s Guide to Writing Great Poetry, Stories, School Reports, and More! by Kerry Madden and Tracy McGuinness (Young adult) |
| 7. A Writing Kind of Day: Poems for Young Poets by Ralph Fletcher and April Ward (Ages 9-12) |
In my case, you would have to multiply my yearly number of students (averaging 200 in high school and college) by the number of years I’ve taught since 1980, when I participated in a Faculty Writing Project at GMU. If each teacher’s future students become part of the count, as well as the teachers who have participated since the NWP’s inception in 1974, the numbers increase exponentially.
This is not the time to cut back on proven teacher development, nor is it a time to burn bridges between high school and college teachers. One of the beauties of writing project practices is that they work as well in college as they do in the lower grades. The NWP’s scope embraces students and improves their writing at all educational levels.
We bemoan the glacial pace of education reform and are better at complaining about lack of change than we are at putting those changes into practice. The NWP is a rarity in that it has succeeded in changing classroom culture for the better. Participating teachers learn to love writing, and that love makes all the difference in their students’ attitudes. I would not be a writer if not for the National Writing Project, and many of my students would say the same about themselves.
If you want a return to diagramming sentences, the five-paragraph essay, and school writing programs that take all the love and fun out of writing, then this funding cut is a wise one. But if you recognize that love of writing can be a powerful tool to effect change and to communicate point of view (whether in an office or a classroom), then you need to support the senators and congressmen who want to restore funding to the NWP in the next budget cycle.
A step in the right direction would be to reclassify national ongoing programs as something other than earmarks. It’s not only common sense, but important for our future as a nation where written expression is valued.
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. Email her at [email protected].
