A rocky boat
July 30th, 2010 § 7 Comments
Running a writing workshop is like being on a boat in the middle of the sea. Sometimes you think you’re doing fine and land is in sight, other times the waves are rocking your boat and you’re battling to stay afloat, and sometimes you get hit by a wave and you don’t know if you’ll tip out or stay in.
I’ve been told that the time of day greatly influences teaching outcomes and boy is that true. My Monday morning group, period 1 and 2, have been the easier to handle and more dedicated group, whereas the Thursday group, period 5 and 6, who are students selected in the accelerated English class have been a bit unruly, and hard to motivate. It seems as if all their energy has been used up during the day and they’re kind of floppy and over it all.
After some struggle to get them thinking ideas in the end I just had to set writing time and got them to write down something, anything because they were like unruly eels with ideas undulating and slipping through their hands. We did a writing exercise to get ideas flowing and one of the ideas was to think of mean things someone did to you. A student mentioned a parent yelling, which became a mean mother.
I told the story about when my mother and I didn’t get along when I was an adolescent. My Mum always went on about how when she was young she had men fawning over her because she had no other achievements to brag about. Because of the struggles in her life she didn’t have a career etc. So when I became a teenager and blossomed she was resentful and we had a rocky relationship. After our discussion about parents being mean and mean teachers I went around to read individual writing.
A student wrote about a young girl having a loving mother when she was a small child and then her mother changes, becomes full of rage and yells at her all the time. In the story the young girl comes home from school all happy only to have her mother go at her and bring her down. The girl runs away, but she has nowhere to go and ends up coming back. While I’m critiquing the story she begins crying and I realise this a real story.
I waited it out, giving her time to deal with her emotions. A student brought tissues and another one hugged her. I talked about how writing is hard because it bring up all sorts of emotions. That sometimes it can help, sometimes it makes you feel worse. That if it makes it easier to write she can make the character someone outside of herself, give her a different name, different family. Or she can think about the reader and how this story might help someone else because we’ve all been betrayed by an adult. I told her I was proud of her for being brave to share her story, that it’s not easy to be so honest.
She asked me how did I forgive my mother. I told her it took time, that a lot of things happened between then and now and it’s a journey, and sometimes forgiveness isn’t about the other person, it’s about you being able to move on. And then I hoped. I hoped I told her the right things, that I gave her what she needed in that moment and that I didn’t royally stuff up.
When she left I checked in with Jo and told her what happened and sought advice. She said I said everything I could have in that moment and that she’d check in with the student and follow up. I asked her if I should change the writing exercise, but she said no, maybe this student needed this to work through this experience.
When I was preparing for this residency about writing from personal experiences I wanted real stories, stories that touched people and meant something. I did not foresee the dangerous minefield this could become because to write something real is to open yourself, to share your soul. It makes me realise the responsibility I have to these students to give them a safe environment to share and to give them the emotional support they need. It’s very scary and humbling. I just hope this is a positive experience for this student.
Some other things that happened:
- Had a talk with Jo and The Good Daughter will never be used as a class set because of the swearing and adult content. Bumb. I won’t change my writing style, but I will evaluate whether there is need for swearing etc in my book. I feel like TGD was full of my suppressed rage, it was about purging myself of my shitty adolescence and that now it would be a different book. I’ve seen how my writing style has changed and what I’m writing about with this second book.
- I was chatting again to a VCE student who is not sure about his future directions. We were talking about Australian politics and got onto asylum seekers. He was repeating the media mantra: can’t assimilate, we can’t support them because they’re bringing us down. I told him about the profile I was doing and two of the women were from Lebanese background. When her parents first came to Australia they moved to a suburb where their population was because they had no language skills. Over the years as their children went to school they learnt the language through them and assimilated. I told him it’s a process. It’s not something that happens overnight, but this is a story we’re being told by the media and politicians to cover up xenophobia. I told him about my degree and how doing a major in politics changed my life. I learnt to look at the world critically and began thinking about what do I really want to write, how do I want to impact the world.
All up it was a challenging and stimulating day. Until next time.
That’s a really interesting blog post. It sounds like you responded well to the situation with the student who wrote about her own experiences – you were sympathetic, encouraging and you also gave practical advice.
P.S. Have you ever checked out Footscray Community Arts Centre (http://www.footscrayarts.com)? I used to work for them. Years ago, they used to run writing programs for the local community.
Hi Tom
I’ve heard about Footscray Community Arts Centre. I might reach out to them and see if they would be interested in running courses.
Cheers
Amra
Hey Amra
I’m enjoying reading your blog posts. Judith Ridge has organised for me to do a series of six talks / workshops at Macquarie Fields HS in western Sydney over the next few weeks. I did the first today and I relate to much of what you’re writing about. Judith mentioned that she’d like to, perhaps, find the connection between our two sets of workshop participants and see if there was a way to parallel the lives of kids in western Sydney and western Melbourne. It would be interesting to explore and it’s great to see what you’re doing. I hope to blof my adventures, too. Will let you know.
Thanks for sharing!
T.
Hey Amra
I’m enjoying reading your blog posts. Judith Ridge has organised for me to do a series of six talks / workshops at Macquarie Fields HS in western Sydney over the next few weeks. I did the first today and I relate to much of what you’re writing about. Judith mentioned that she’d like to, perhaps, find the connection between our two sets of workshop participants and see if there was a way to parallel the lives of kids in western Sydney and western Melbourne. It would be interesting to explore and it’s great to see what you’re doing. I hope to blog my adventures, too. Will let you know.
Thanks for sharing!
T.
Hi Tristan, great to hear from you. Just got an email from her yesterday and she’ll be calling me for a chat so we can see how we can parallel the projects. Looking forward to hearing/reading about what you’re doing with the students. Looked at your website and it was freaky seeing your photo and feeling this strong sense of recognition. When I read your profile I realised I was watching Home and Away while you were on. Thanks for getting in touch.
Hi Amra,
I’m just starting out with giving workshops, and I’m really glad I read this post. You’re right – writing so often involves baring our soul, and it’s so important to give kids a safe space to do it.
Hi Robyn
Great to hear from you. It’s been quite a journey and every session I’m learning about myself and thinking about my writing more. I’ve been thinking about some of my short stories that I wrote years ago and how I might revisit them and revise now that I’m in that frame of mind. See you at the MWF. Got your book so I’ll be reading it over the next week.