Happy Friday everyone,
As I’m sure you’ve all experienced, our organization values writing. We write a lot: pedagogical essays, annual performance memos, classroom observations, Child Study reports, weekly emails to parents, self-reflections, internal discussions and memos. In comparison to most organizations, other schools included, a career with us involves continuous, unending written communication.
Why? Why do we place such a premium on communicating through writing? Why do we hold the ability to write clearly in such high regard?
The main reason, it may surprise you, has nothing to do with communication. We value writing not because it is a tool of communication, but because it is a tool of thought. The work of formulating one’s ideas in words is not primarily an act of telling, it is primarily an act of thinking. Striving for precision in writing is the single best way to achieve precision in thought.
The emphasis we place on good writing is an expression of our commitment to seeking understanding and clarity. Understanding and clarity can be pursued in many ways—going for a walk and reflecting on some issue, engaging in impassioned debate, even listening to music to calm oneself when one is angry or defensive. But, as valuable and necessary these forms of truth-seeking are, the ultimate power tool of truth-seeking is writing. Writing is the act of trying to articulate and express a complex thought clearly in a crystalizing, objective medium.
There are probably times when you feel like it’s taking way longer than it should to write an email. I have many times had the experience of spending an hour on getting a few sentences right, or rewriting a paragraph 20 times because it is off the mark. You, I’m sure, are familiar with this struggle.
In such cases, it might be helpful to remember that in the act of writing, in the tedious work of finding the right phrase or getting the grammar correct, you are not just clarifying the one issue at hand for your immediate audience. You are investing in your own mind. You are developing intellectual muscle by exercising your mind’s ability to be precise. And in doing that, you’re strengthening your capacity to seek truth. Precision in writing is precision in thought, and such precision is a skill developed through practice.
The good news is that if you write a lot, and edit a lot, you get faster at writing and editing. You are able to more quickly cut to the essence of an issue, with fewer words and greater clarity. The investment in your own mind pays off not just in better thinking, but also in faster thinking.
If you’re interested in the topic of precision in writing, I’d like to recommend the book Less than Words can Say, by Richard Mitchell. I read it almost twenty years ago, and it helped me develop my appreciation of writing. The author critiques the public school system’s language education program as a major cause of the deterioration of the American public’s ability to think effectively. Here’s a free online version:
https://sourcetext.com/grammarian-less-than-words-can-say-index-html/
I’ll close with a quote from the book to whet your interest :-)
Words never fail. We hear them, we read them; they enter into the mind and become part of us for as long as we shall live. Who speaks reason to his fellowmen bestows it upon them. Who mouths inanity disorders thought for all who listen. There must be some minimum allowable dose of inanity beyond which the mind cannot remain reasonable. Irrationality, like buried chemical waste, sooner or later must seep into all the tissues of thought.
Ray Girn
Chief Executive Officer, Higher Ground Education
Thank you! I enjoy writing to my parents! I have received feedback that they are utilizing some of the language from the classroom at home. In my emails, I like to briefly share a concept from the Montessori philosophy and its connection to their child's daily experience. Thank you for your inspiring words and resources.
Very well said!
Writing helps in manifestation!