Wachstumshormone

Jun

17

Wild Words: A guide to integrating creative writing into field-based education

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by Becca Deysach

“I’ve always wanted to write but never gave myself permission.”

This sentiment is the one I have heard most frequently since I began teaching creative writing several years ago.  I’ve heard it from my college students, patients at a mental health clinic, and empty-nesters who are finally letting themselves do whatever the heck they want.

The more I inquire about my students’ inhibitions about writing, the more I discover that people are afraid they have nothing to say, or, worse,  that they will fail terribly at saying what they want. I hear horror stories of returned papers that might as well have been dipped in red ink, and the resulting belief that they were, indeed, better off not trying.

But it’s not true: they are storytellers.  We all are. Some creative impulse lives in each of us—it’s part of being human, after all—and for some, the urge to paint or dance or write becomes so great that eventually it overpowers the limitations imposed by well intentioned teachers when they were young.  But then it shouldn’t get to that point.

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Becca Deysach teaches creative writing and environmental studies for Prescott College and Ibex Studios: Adventures in Creative Writing (www.ibexstudios.com).  She is excited to work with teachers in all disciplines to integrate creative writing into their curricula and can be reached at becca@ibexstudios.com.

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