Back in the 60's, Mrs. Michaels was my 7th grade English teacher at Collins Jr. High in Cupertino. Why I love to write is because of her.
Monday through thursday we'd walk into class and find a handful of words on the blackboard. They were usually words few of us knew. After looking them up, we then had 10 minutes to write a one page story, position paper or what-have-you incorporating those blackboard words.
In a month or so, we all got pretty good at the routine. (I've neglected to mention that all of this had to be done in the first 15 minutes of the class.) As much as I started enjoying it, I got mostly B's and couldn't understand why. But then I saw a pattern... the more I took a stand or got philosophical in my one pager, the better the grade. The visible effort of "thinking" was rewarded on a regular basis.
Oh yeah... about fridays. On fridays we'd group up as teams of 5 to do competitive crossword puzzles. Dictionary, thesaurus in hand, we applied what was steadily growing in all of us. True excitement about the English language and how to harness it.
Thank you Mrs. Michaels. I wish you were here to help save the world.
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