IABC Café

Many of us worry about the fact that a lot of people cannot write very well. I have worried about this for a long time, which is why I spent 8 years teaching seniors in high school how to write essays. I left the classroom, but the signs of poor writing and bad grammar abound: Misuse of “it’s.” Signs that say, “Express Lane–15 items or less.” And now there’s texting, which has further deteriorated the quality of writing, or so it seems.

So, naturally my heart was warmed to learn what Dave Eggers, award-winning author (National Book Critics Circle Award for
“What is the What”), is doing in San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Michigan, Seattle and Chicago. At least 6 years ago, he established 826 Valencia, a project in the Mission District of San Francisco, “dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18 with their writing skills. . .Our work is based on the understanding that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.”
www.826valencia.org

To help students from 6 to 18 improve their writing skills, 826 pairs tutors with students to work on writing projects, both in the classroom and at the headquarters, 826 Valencia, a combination writing lab and pirate store. Many of these projects are published. For the last few weeks I have been working with high schools seniors on a travel guide, a teen-ager’s view of San Francisco. The drafts have been completed, and now the project is in the editing stage. In the late spring, the collection will be published.

The heartwarming part of the story is not that I am volunteering with the project. (And in the interest of full disclosure, the term “heartwarming” is an allusion to Eggers’ popular novel, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”)

But back to my point–the heartwarming part of this tale is not my volunteer work, it’s the idea that someone believes that being good at writing makes a difference.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.