This essay summarizes an article published on The New York Times website titled “Why Kids Can’t Write” by Dana Goldstein, published on August 2, 2021. Goldstein claims that writing is a crucial skill for children as it helps them acquire knowledge in school. However, many children are weak writers for several reasons, which have prompted many teachers to create question sheets that would assist children in writing.
When given writing assignments, many children struggle with how to get started and how to put down their thoughts in sentences or compositions. One reason is that most educators do not focus more on grammar fundamentals, which is a critical approach in teaching writing (Goldstein, 2017). In addition, educators get insufficient training in teaching writing and are often feeble writers themselves. In their training, few sessions are allocated to the teaching of writing. Many teachers are less concerned with constructing sentences than assisting children in drawing inspiration from literature and their own experiences.
Moreover, the education system devotes less time to teaching children how to write. The system focuses more on reading than writing, thus making children good readers and poor writers. Educators are not obliged by the system to teach the children how to write. Thus, they are left to learn on their own, which is problematic considering they are beginners. Thus, children get very little exposure to writing skills in school. The children are not exposed to brainstorming, freewriting, and journaling about their personal experiences, improving their writing.
Writing skills could be incorporated into preschool classrooms by enhancing teachers’ training in colleges and universities. Additionally, the education system should give more focus to children’s writing skills through various interventions. For example, the Hochman Method is effective in helping students develop writing skills because it helps them develop their writing skills (The Writing Revolution, 2020). Through this method, learners are encouraged to develop their writing skills, from writing sentences to connecting their ideas to composition level.
References
Goldstein, D. (2017). Why kids can’t write. The New York Times. Web.
The Writing Revolution. (2020). Strategies in action. Web.