We are made of stories

I love when reading my students' writing helps me learn new and wonderful things about them. Today as I was reading their passion project proposals, I learned that my student Hannah volunteers at a local animal shelter. For her passion project she wants to become a certified animal rescuer. As I was reading her proposal, I was struck by the story she told about the moment she knew she wanted to help rescue animals*:

There was this one dog that I was assigned to give a bath to. His name was Cocoa and he was a black lab. He was shaking when he was handed to me and his eyes were shining with fear. But once he was in my arms he stopped shaking and just sat there staring at me with curiosity . That's when I knew I wanted to help rescue animals.

David Coleman (the architect of the Common Core State Standards) and his ilk dismiss narrative in favor of argumentative writing in schools, but the longer I'm a teacher and a writer, the more I realize that arguments mean nothing without story.

Just look at the recent story of the walking man in Detroit. Issues don't become important or real to people without the benefit of story. Now one person's plight is bringing national attention to the lack of public transportation in the city of Detroit. We as a species don't pay attention to issues until we make a personal connection to them, and how can we do that without telling stories?

So I will continue to celebrate, embrace, and encourage my students to write stories. No matter what the architects of the Common Core think I should be doing in their stead. 


*For the sake of clarity and flow, I corrected a few spelling errors in the above passage.

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