I want there to be a creative writing class in Bear River. Right now there isn’t one and it’s creating a missed opportunity for Bear River students.
Bear River has a Journalism class taught by Mike DeCicco and English classes for all grades, however they do not have any classes for creative writing. Creative writing is creating characters, plots, settings, etc to make stories by using one’s imagination.
Some of the English teachers have worked at Bear River long enough to have seen things change and develop. Sherlyn Reafsnyder, the English 2 teacher and the Honors (1X) English teacher, had an idea why there isn’t a class currently.
“I don’t think there was one anytime I’ve been working here,” she said. “Teachers are trying to provide so much that they don’t have time to do a class. There aren’t enough teachers to teach all the classes the school wants.”
One teacher has tried to make a chance for creative writers without having a class. Sara Noah believes that creative writing is a fun way to express oneself.
“I created a Flex time that freshmen and sophomores would come to at the end of the day,” Noah said. “That’s when Flex was called Bruin Time. It lasted for one or two years.”
The class would get together and write and share stories and work on their skills in writing. After that, though, there hasn’t been any class, club or Flex time to come together and share each other’s creations and learn new things.
There should be a club or Flex time at least so that writers can express their passion and creativity in a way they understand. There are also many different benefits from creative writing. It can develop our linguistic intelligence, which is the skill to “understand and use spoken and written language”. It can create more empathy in students because they have to think about motivations and reasons for their character’s actions. This can help in real life situations because students can understand why someone else might act out in a certain way. Or it can help them communicate their own emotions and help them be more self aware.
It also develops problem solving skills because stories involve conflict that the writer has to solve for the story to continue. That can create a creative way of processing problems which can help them in real life too.
Students have also expressed their wish for writing opportunities. Payton Garten, a freshman at Bear River, has liked writing since third grade.
“I would love to have a creative writing club because it would be a good outlet for students to practice their writing skills and to create stories,” she said.
Keira Gwin, another freshman, has also wished for a way to start writing more.
“Having students coming together to write can get me out of writer’s block, which I’ve had for a while. It gives you ideas for stories, gets you motivated, and it’s a lot more fun that way,” she said.
Valerie Bautista, a junior, wished there were more chances for different forms of writing.
“Creative writing class would be cool to integrate in Bear River because it would influence others who don’t like writing structured essays to write something different that’s more fun,” she said.
Because of the benefits and the fact that other students wish they could practice their writing skills, I believe there should be a group of students that get together so they can start expressing their love for writing.