“It’s sheer joy to me”
Vanessa Chan, a high school student, argues for creative writing to be a greater part of the secondary curriculum. Using a rhetorical framework, which they concede is one of the dominant forms of secondary writing instruction, Chan deconstructs formal schooling’s standardized test culture and argues that creative writing supports empathy and understanding.
Chan, whose presentation is an excellent model for student speakers, presents a solid student-centered argument for additional opportunities for creative writing, linking its practice to experiential learning, insisting that “when we write fiction our world revolves around someone else.”
Additional Read
Chan mentions the value of experiential learning, a teaching practice that has a history dating back to John Dewey. In a recent speech by American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, she lists experiential learning as one of four “Strategies for Powerful Education” which also includes community schools, reviving and restoring the teaching profession and parents and community as partners.