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.
Riley, Mary. “Writing Program Brings Comfort to Women in Jail.” Lindsay, This Week, Canada. 01 January 2007
I love this idea. I think having a class for students to write their problems gives teachers a way to get to know their students and also gives them an outlet for their own writing style. I hope that I can have students that are willing to write what they feel and come to me if they have any problems. I have always admired those teachers that are comfortable talking to their students about problems and they let them know they they are always there. I hope to be a teacher like that one day, and hopefully my students can come to me.
Writing is a great emotional outlet, but I would be a little worried about having all those emotions floating around my classroom. Personally, there are some issues that I do not feel like I am trained in enough to provide the comfort and outlet necessary to students. Although I want my students to feel comfortable coming to me with an issue, I do not know if I could face all the issue without backup from counselors and/or other teachers and staff.
I would also want their writing to be more than their sob story. I would want to see how the event or emotion has affected their outlook or their future. I would want to see what lesson was learned or how it shaped their character. I might want to see a solution. I would always want more and maybe the students would not be in a stable place to provide that yet.
The most difficult challenge, I think, would be grading. How can one put a numerical grade on a paper with so much invested in its writing? I like the idea of writing as a means of counseling, but I am hesitant in turning my classroom into a counseling session.
pos yourgirls