An Afternoon with Young Writers and Rick Bragg

Earlier this year I had my Creative Writing students all submit a poem to a writing competition. I have to admit that I originally made them do this so that I could get them writing something, but also so that I could do my job as a teacher and keep my students "involved". When I found out that three of my students from that class had won awards, I was floored. I've had students win writing awards before, but this really struck close to home. The entire reason I chose this job at Davidson was because they offered me the Creative Writing classes. And over the years it's become more of a beast than the refreshing writing workshop that I envisioned. It's not often that I get affirmation for the work that I do with my students.
One student in particular is an amazing writer. I've tried to motivate him and help him with his craft. It's just hard to give brillant writers the time and instruction that they need when you have twenty nine other kids that really could care less and are more interested in "I can go to the bathroom?" (a statement asked as a question with inflection at the end)
So this afternoon I piled the three kids up in my car and took them to a local private school. I wasn't very familiar with Rick Bragg other than hearing from friends about how wonderful his books are. http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/bragg/
But I was motivated and entertained this afternoon. First of all, my three students won the Honorable Mention, Third Place, and First Place awards for poetry. It made me swoon to see them walk up to the stage and accept their awards and get a copy of Mr. Bragg's book, It's All Over but the Shoutin'. As I looked around at all the Honors students dressed in their plaid skirts and pressed khakis, I was overwhelmed with pride at two of my students who stood out among the rest with their professionally braided hair and popular colored contacts. They weren't meant or expected to be a part of this elite group, and yet their writing had stood out among the majority of Honors students. And it was even more endearing when one of my students, who might never win another award or certificate in her life, turned to me and asked, "What does Honorable Mention mean?" In so many words I explained to her that it meant she needed to take that certificate home and frame it.

As Bragg began to address the crowd with his suggestions for writing, he reaffirmed my confidence in teaching Creative Writing, when he told the young writers to always remember to "Show" and not "Tell." This is something I learned myself in college writing classes and had always made a point to teach to my students. To hear a well-known author suggest the same gave me a little satisfaction in knowing that perhaps I am on the right track with my teaching style. He continued on to tell wonderful ancedotes of his writing career and life; once even glancing up (as we sat in a private school's chapel) and "swore to God." At one point as he asked the crowd of young writers to raise their hand if they hoped to become a full-time writer someday, I found myself raising my hand and then blushing when I realized he was speaking to them and not the teachers.

I left with a little more confidence in my abilities, more motivation in my opportunities to write, one aspiring writer with more talent than he knows of, and two girls with certificates stuffed in their purses, begging me to stop at McDonalds.