Essays are difficult for kids, but we can conquer them. I am a ten-year-old student, and whenever I try, I always have a hard time getting an idea. I will think for hours upon hours, but nothing comes to mind. Even if I try again the next day, sometimes, nothing still happens. My brain is like a computer with an error not being able to run a program. I always thought of it as writer’s block, but it really should be known as “essay block”! I don’t have it when I write my stories or at school. But when it comes to essays, I am stumped about what to do.
However, I have found a solution for myself. It’s called a partner. They help you through the day. My partner changes all the time. I can have a little stuffy or even my brother as my guide. I had to come up with my own solution for my own essay block, so as not to take the advice of an adult who is not in a position to remember what writing as a kid is like.
Adults sometimes can have an “illness” per se, called Grown-Ideas. They have a more fixed mindset and less imagination than when they were a kid because they grow a more danger-mind. This is where they can’t imagine anything, only the bluntness. When you are a child your mindscape is endless so you truly understand the problems grownups don’t.
This brings me to something I found to further suggest this, an article by Kim Kautzer called “How to Help a Child with Writer’s Block.” Kautzer, who wrote the article, simply doesn’t understand children at all. She kept referring to the learner as “he,” and not “she” or “they.” As an example, she would write “Later, he can ask,” or “[f]or example, he can” or even “gives him,” but never use other pronouns. It’s as though only boys can learn and use this advice. I feel a little as though this sexist wording is from the past.
It’s probably careless wording that accounts for most mistakes, but her other overgeneralization is more serious. It concerns age and expectations of what kids should achieve at certain ages. She kept saying that a person has a duty to meet certain standards by a set birthdate. For example, she says that “Younger children shouldn’t labor over a revision. It’s enough to add a few details, substitute stronger words, and polish up spelling and punctuation.” So, in other words, she is suggesting that the minute the kid turns a new age, they are somehow supposed to be wonderful with no whatsoever real preparation. Just because that is true for some people, it’s not like you can magically blow out your birthday candles and then write cleanly and perfectly. Everyone is different, therefore, it is an unrealistic standard to change so quickly from easy to hard expectations in one day. For example, in the article Kautzer says, “Teens, however, should expect to rewrite a draft several times before it passes muster, beefing up arguments, supporting with additional facts, embellishing with description, and improving both word choice and mechanics.” This quote is the opposite of the claim that writing is hard since it is saying that you have to be like this at one age or another. Making these claims can be pressuring, and create shame since she makes seeming to fall short of “age-appropriate” goals a stressful situation.
You can decide for yourself with the link at the end. If you are an adult, you probably won’t understand. So, I feel you should listen to kids like me, the people who are affected by these bad pedagogical choices, first.