From a letter to Growing Without Schooling, Dec 95

This is a response to a letter in a previous issue that was about a girl who produced a flyer, and some people felt that since she didn't do all the work herself, she couldn't claim that she is the one who wrote it.

Susannah's comments about Amanda Bergson-Shilcock's flyer made me think about the reports I have to write for the school district. One of the subjects is writing. What exactly do they mean by that? Do they mean the physical act of putting pen to paper and making marks? Do they mean paraphrasing the thoughts of others, or answering questions? Or do they mean creating your own ideas and thoughts and putting them into words? All of these things are writing. Schools often seem to focus on the first two, but it is the third one that I want my kids to learn. Whether or not you think Amanda wrote her flyer depends on what you think writing is. I think Amanda did it on her own- with help, which is how most people do things. They come up with an idea, and use whatever resources they have (and find necessary) in order to do what they want to do. If some of those resources are other people, that doesn't change who is doing the project.

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