Teaching students how to write well has long been a St. Andrew’s Episcopal School hallmark.
For decades, St. Andrew’s graduates have cited their writing ability as a skill that sets them apart from their peers during their college years and continues to distinguish them in their professional lives.
In an era of social media shorthand and even shorter attention spans, those excellent writing skills are more important than ever before.
“Everyone is a writer. Clear communication matters no matter what future a student envisions,” Dr. Matt Luter, Upper School English teacher, said. “Even people who aren’t writing for a living find themselves sending lots of emails and writing to their peers and colleagues.
“Everyone can also improve as a writer,” Luter continued. “Even students who insist, ‘I’m not an English person’ benefit from frequent practice, feedback, and revision. St. Andrew’s does a good job of individualizing feedback to specific students. We know that each student has their own challenges as a writer, and we have lots of tools we can adapt on the fly to meet each student where they are. I also think it’s important that all of our English faculty are, in different ways, writers themselves. As a group, we write talks for chapel, blog posts on the school’s site, communications for our professional organizations, and the list goes on. I still do some academic writing and publishing. I appreciate that we are a group of teacher-practitioners.”
While they are masters at instructing students in the mechanics of good writing, St. Andrew’s teachers’ true gift is in making writing matter.
“Good writers are also analytical observers with critical attention to detail,” said Marty Kelly ‘03, Upper School English teacher. “Like any tool, good writing is something our students need to know how to wield when necessary. I tell them I don’t care how they Tweet or text or Snap, but they do have to know their audience and be able to shift their mode of communication to what is most appropriate for whoever is listening or reading.”
“If we’re talking about future careers, well, there’s no job in which clear communication is irrelevant,” said Luter. “But one’s work aside – and more importantly, since our graduates are not their jobs – being a thoughtful and active citizen and a lifelong learner requires facility with language, both as a reader and as a writer.”
As Kelly points out, strong writing skills have lasting value beyond a college application essay or a business cover letter.
“I would love to think that my students care that I still write my husband an anniversary poem every year, that my husband writes me letters for every holiday, and that I think a thoughtful, handwritten note is next to godliness,” Kelly said, then added with a smile, “But I’m not sure those things hit the same notes of relevance for them at the age of 15.”
Predictably, a number of St. Andrew’s graduates have become professional writers, publishing children’s books, short story collections, literary fiction, cookbooks, nonfiction, and virtually every genre found on amazon.com. While their literary styles run the gamut, all credit St. Andrew’s for helping hone their craft.
“The generosity of my teachers was gigantic, an un-repayable debt. I mean people like Laura Glaze, Bee Donley, Scott Smoot, Caroline Langston Jarboe, Dot Kitchings, Taylor Kitchings, Hannah King,” said Barrett Hathcock ‘96, author of The Portable Son. “Not only did the teachers read my writing and respond with notes, they took me seriously. They did the most dangerous thing you can do with a student – they actually listened…Nothing compares to those teachers, some of whom are still there today.”
Gilbert Ford ‘96, author and illustrator of children’s books Flying Lessons, The Marvelous Thing that Came from a Spring, How the Cookie Crumbled, and The Mysterious Messenger added, “We had to use writing for everything. I was asked to keep a journal, write essays for history tests, even a paragraph about how to solve a math problem in an algebra test. When I went to art college, I discovered I was a confident writer compared to the other visual artists.”
“The St. Andrew’s curriculum always emphasized writing, even when we were in elementary school. In high school, we had fantastic English and history teachers who had high standards when it came to how students expressed themselves on paper. Although I learned a lot in college and elsewhere, any writing skills that I have today are really a product of being a student at St. Andrew’s,” said Ben Wynne ‘79, author of the multiple historical nonfiction books such as The Man Who Punched Jefferson Davis: The Political Life of Henry Stuart Foote.
Reading is one of the best ways to learn how to write and reading for pleasure is encouraged by St. Andrew’s English faculty. Luter explained, “When I hear a student say they don’t like to read, what I actually hear is, ‘I haven’t found the right book for me yet.’ There are countless books out there and sifting through all the options is a tall order. But as a school year goes on and I get to know students more individually, I’ve been known to foist books on specific students. There’s a lot of power in ‘I think you would enjoy this one.’”
