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!