HOWL for the National Writing Project *

I saw the best writers of the next generation destroyed by Congress, starving for better

     instruction,

dragging themselves through boring assignments until dawn staring angry at the page,

angelheaded students burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the stellar joy of

     meaningful expression,

who formula-clotted and hollow-eyed and ear-weary and skill-drill-bitten slouched in

     cold desks as uninspired teachers failed to reach them,

who bared their brains in hope to gain the leaven of creative illumination,

who passed through universities with terror-full eyes because their leaders preferred to be

     scholars of war than makers of meaning,

who were expelled from the academies because they could not find themselves in any of

     the words they were forced to type nor gifted avenues to publish the hot thoughts

     that cooked in their skulls,

who lacked teachers who knew how to use blogs, digital media, self-inquiry,

     collaboration, social networks to inspire and fire their writing skills,

who had no teachers taught by real-world teachers, instructors armed with the knowledge

     of practical classroom experience, teachers ready with effective lessons already

     proven in the field,

who cried out for teachers who understood the holy goal of turning words into lightning,

     paragraphs into Pantheon’s of honest self-examination, essays into visions and

     revisions of the endless revelation that a page can stage,

who disappeared, dissolved, resolved themselves to silence while competing cultures

     roared ahead and left America gasping unprepared.

What sphinx of pseudo-patriotism and yellowed marble slashed open their hopes and ate

     up their chance at better written expression?

Congress! Congress who thinks staying ahead means cutting off the head of innovative

     organizations like the National Writing Project!

Congress who reasons the less support we give writing instruction, the more better our

     writing will get!

Congress! Where Senator Moloch and Representative Moloch conspire to make political

     points by murdering programs that bring access, relevance, and diversity to both

     rural and urban schools!

NWP! I’m with you in America

   where you teach our children that words matter

I’m with you in America

   where you shout in classrooms, “Write from your heart!”

I’m with you in America

   where you understand our country lives in language like

   “We, the People” and “We hold these truths to be self-evident” and

   “Government of the People, by the People, for the People shall not perish”

I’m with you in America

   where your great teaching echoes forever in the sentences our students form that tell,

   re-tell, extol the great tale of our democracy, great light in the Western night

* Note: The National Writing Project deserves to continue its important mission of bringing the best teachers of writing together to share their practical insights and pass on their best practices to the ones who need it most: our children. Congress has decided to cut funding for the NWP, and I hope you and anyone you can reach will communicate to our lawmakers that we need to spend our money where it will do the most good, and the NWP is a great investment in the future success of our students.

HOWL for the NWP!

Brian Slusher

Upstate Writing Project