And the lights are not fluorescent, and there are no words on the page.

Literary Communities Essay

In my many years as the daughter of a full time teacher (in companion with my few years as the daughter of two full time teachers), I have bore unwitting witness to a myriad of violations of the human spirit. One wide and ever expanding enough to fuel one of those documentaries that makes people tear up in the theater and leave telling each other something along the lines of "Wow, that was so deep.", over and over and back and forth.

I've seen class disparities become educational disparities, the breakdown of the overarching student drive and the subsequent breakdown of the heart of teaching (aka the literal teachers themselves, the deterioration of licensing standards for teachers across the board. I was even (un)lucky enough to gather around the dinner table, each and every sorry night, to be sorely reminded of most below the college grade level educator's mainly shared experience of taking second retail or service jobs to balance out their salaries that are blatantly below minimum wage, intense and inescapable job creep, and their time wasted by the endless meeting and group exercises and always unraveling assignments and requirements, always at the cruel hand of the undeniably cruel act of having each and every decision they make in regards to their own classroom scrutinized, critiqued, and forcibly "mended" by politicians, principals, and committees with absolutely no experience in their line of work, nor clue what the everliving heck they are on about.

I will not even bother, my dear School Superintendent, with the regurgitation of my dear mother's testimony of the grueling and degrading reality of teaching Pre-K within the state of [REDACTED] today, along with the past [REDACTED]+ years. You do not, I presume, need that burden of knowledge anymore than I do.

However, just like the previously mentioned theoretical documentary, awareness of these issues is usually meant with the proverbial "Damn, that sucks dude.", followed by the gradual chatter of resumed conversations and the scattering of unfazed individuals.

In the interest of actually having something done about even just a tiny, miniscule part of literally any of this, I am writing to you today an introduction of a concrete proposal concerning the overwhelming need for a comprehensive writing program in [REDACTED]'s elementary schools' shared [REDACTED] curriculum. For years, teachers have used antiquated means and methods to teach creative writing, failing to teach anything that truly sticks with their students outside of the educational environment, let alone anything that applies to the world of creative writing outside of said environment. My proposal calls for a group of reading/literacy coaches and experts, experienced in the field of creative writing and training and instructing others, to direct work and collaborate with teachers to train them for the effects of the implementation of a proposed replacement writing program.

With your approval, this proposal will be later presented to the School Board and all teachers and principals statewide, for funding and/or collaboration with this plan. Thank you for your time.