“Your Class Gives Us a Place to Cry.” January 31, 2007

            Last week I talked about how creative writing can help students dealing with mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. This week I found an article about a creative writing program aimed at helping women with life issues, such as physical and sexual abuse, drug addiction, financial problems, family problems, and many more. This program takes place at Lindsay Central East Correctional Center and is run by author Susan Reynolds, who has spent years researching the benefits of therapeutic writing and has become a certified teacher of it. Susan states,

“At first, they come because it’s something new to do while in jail, but when they actually start to write it becomes an outlet for them. It’s both creative and therapeutic.”

            Writing gives these women a chance to deal with the struggle in life that they have faced. Susan says,

“It’s been shown that writing can help both physical and mental health, especially when people are writing about traumatic events in their lives. These women pour out their souls. They pour their pain into what they write. “

                Being a teenager can sometimes be a lot like being an inmate. Much like inmates have to put on their “tough” faces, so do teenagers for fear of ridicule. Teens that have been sexually and physically abused, or are addicted to drugs, often have no one to turn to. They cannot talk to their parents about it, and many do not feel comfortable talking to teachers and not safe enough to talk to their friends because we all know when one person finds something out in high school, five minutes later everyone else knows.  So what do these kids do? They put on their “tough” face. These kids should have the opportunity to deal with these problems somewhere, and as one inmate put it,

“Your class give us a place to cry.’”

                I think a class like this could do the same for middle school and high school kids as well, and it is still stressing and teaching academics! Schools could even incorporate it into some kind of health class, or just make it strictly a creative writing class where students could take it for any reason, even if it is just because they are interested in it. There are so many possibilities! Writing classes help build writing communities and give kids a sense of belonging. They also allow kids to deal with their issues on paper. Students who are happy, and enjoy school are more likely to succeed. A class like this would also help to make students better writers if you want to look at from strictly an academic perspective. There is grant money out there for programs like this. That is how Susan Reynolds funded her program. I think this is something educators and future educators should be exploring. It’s simple and effective.

Full Article

Riley, Mary. “Writing Program Brings Comfort to Women in Jail.” Lindsay, This Week, Canada. 01 January 2007

Writing Helps People With Mental Illness January 22, 2007

Teenagers are often seen temperamental, self-centered, and unstable beings. A lot of people just think it is a “phase” that kids go through. Most high school kids are not in the “real world” yet, so how can they have “real problems?” Well, they do. It is stressful being in high school. Teens have to worry about grades, deadlines, extra-curricular activities, college applications, drugs, sex, alcohol, unwanted pregnancies, family problems, and believe it or not, where they sit in cafeteria. The truth is for a lot of kids this “moodiness” is not just a phase and they aren’t just being difficult. A lot of teens have real problems that need real help.

A website called “About Teen Depression” offers some staggering statistics:

The statistics on teen depression are sobering. Studies indicate that one in five children have some sort of mental, behavioral, or emotional problem, and that one in ten may have a serious emotional problem. Among adolescents, one in eight may suffer from depression. Of all these children and teens struggling with emotional and behavioral problems, a mere 30% receive any sort of intervention or treatment. The other 70% simply struggle through the pain of mental illness or emotional turmoil, doing their best to make it to adulthood.

So, where can these kids go to get help? How about their high school English class? Ron Hilton wrote an atricle in the Democrat and Chronicle telling about his experience as a creative writing teacher. He has a creative writing class that is specifically for people dealing with mental illnesses and alcoholism.

He writes:

For some time I have been teaching creative writing to people in recovery from mental illness and/or addiction. My current students are clients of the Intensive Psychiatric Rehabilitation Treatment and Employment Service, a program   of Catholic Family Center. I am especially pleased to be working with them because I, too, am recovering from mental illness. I know firsthand their daily turmoil of meeting symptoms head on. Thus, I am inspired by their valiant struggle on dual fronts: to express themselves in prose or poetry and to battle mental illness.Often they tell me that writing provides them a creative outlet, that they (like many professional writers) learn to live in the minds and hearts of their characters. One of my students recently observed that he never feels so well as when he is writing.

How great! All schools should try to incorporate a creative writing class, or at least a creative writing unit into an existing English class. It would benefit the students both academically and mentally. They could write about the problems they don’t feel comfortable talking about. They can play out situations and feeling in their writing, that they can’t in real life. They can channel their frustration in a productive way.

Writing acts as a release. I know in my life I have problems and struggles that I don’t feel comfortable talking about, so I write. Even writing one page when I am upset can make a difference. It gives me a chance to sort out my life and make sense of everything, and in the end I have a poem, or a story that I am proud of. Why not give every student the chance to experience this “free” therapy?

Of course having a creative writing class is not going to solve every students’s problems, but it is better than doing nothing at all.  For more information visit the article “Finding hope and healing in writing poetry, prose”

Full Article   

and check out the website “About Teen Depression”  

About Teen DepressionHilton, Ron. “Finding Hope and Healing in Poetry, Prose.” Democrat and Chronicle, 11 January 2007.

Creative Healing: Opening Statements January 15, 2007

Schools often stress the importance of writing in the “real world” by telling students how it well benefit them in college, or in business,  but schools often neglect to tell students how writing can benefit their mental health.  It is often hard for students to relate and use what they are learning in the classroom to their everyday life. Most lessons seem to be aimed at the future, but that could all change if teachers could show students how writing can be a creative outlet to deal with all the stress in their lives.

I want to know all the ways writing can help students deal with stress, peer pressure, family problems, violence and the pressure to fit in.  Once I know the benefits, I want to explore how we can tap in to this great potential in the classroom. This would help students with their stress levels while also providing relevance to their writing.

 The first two feeds I subscribed to are in the “New York Times.” I subscribed to the “Education” section as well as the “Psychology” section. I thought the psychology section would be helpful because it looks at the mental health side of my topic. The education section will be helpful because I am looking at writing in an educational setting.

Next I chose sections from “Newsweek” because it is one of the major news sources that I am more familiar with. I subscribed the “Top News” section because I thought there may be a mixture of education, writing, and psychology in those stories. I also know that there is a movie called “Freedom Writers” that just came out and has to do with my particular topic and I thought this section might cover things like that. I also subscribed to the “Technology” section because I thought I might find information on blogging and other internet writing tools.

For my search query I chose “Google News” because I am most familiar with “Google” and I am comfortable using it. I subscribed to the search “writing as a creative outlet” and “writing as an outlet for students.” These two searches deal specifically with my topic.

I am still searching for a good blog. I have found one that I am really interested in, but there is no RSS on it. This blog has to do with how creative activities, such as writing, are being used to help children who are victims of hurricane Katrina.There is a lot to learn about this topic and sadly it often remains unlearned. I am excited to really explore this topic through different angles!