CHALK TALK: The making of a Knight writer

In 2009, Colony Middle School, located half way between Palmer and Wasilla, planned a write-a-thon. Every student in the building had 40 solid minutes, a list of generic topics, and a quiet environment to fast draft an essay.

On the day set aside for the process of selecting essays that would be showcased in the library, a panel of volunteer teachers arrived in high spirits. The mood was light. We were ready to read over 600 essays and make the final selection. We all had a “get-in, get it done, and get out” frame of mind. Then we started to read.

The room fell silent as, one after one, our student’s lives unfolded before us. These were the youth who walked through our halls or sat in our classes. These were the students that we thought we knew, but in reality, we knew about very little. We shared laughter over the anecdotes of the students just starting out with their idealistic expectations. We nodded in understanding of the social turmoil that loomed over their daily routines. We cried. Truly and deeply moved, we lamented for those students who had just been trying to survive their circumstances. Story after story floated in the air around us. Connecting and congealing, these accounts provided a truer depiction of our students’ lives than we had ever before encountered.

These essays were in their most raw form—the rough draft. We expected them to be rough. What we didn’t expect was about half of the students who had who had written these stories that wrenched our hearts, made us laugh, cry, or swell with pride, didn’t know how to write at all. These were the students who sat in the back of class with their heads down or only showed up one day a week. These children, we realized, that were so busy trying to survive their shipwreck of a life that they didn’t have time to learn.

We called 80 students down to the library and celebrated them. We were honest and said these stories deserved to be told. We wanted to publish them, not only on the library walls, but for the world to read, however, it would take a massive amount of work and dedication on their part. Working countless hours, organizing, revising, editing, and revising some more, they rose to the challenge. For some, this was the first lesson that they had ever taken to heart, and the first assignment that they had ever followed through to completion. For once, maybe the first time ever, these students felt that they were heard. And It. Was. Magical. This was the most authentic learning process I have ever had the privilege to be a part of in my 13 plus years of teaching.

Listening is one of the most powerful gifts we can offer a young person. I have heard it said, “The root of suffering comes from not being heard.” If this is true, I propose that the root of healing can be found in listening. My journey has taken me form simply seeing these young people as teenager or students. Now, when I stand in the hall I see fascinating young people in process and I am curious to hear their stories.

-Sacha Pettitt teaches language arts at Colony Middle School

Since 2009 Colony Middle has published three volumes of the Knight Writers anthology. With These Hands and Heart, Journeys of a Colony Middle School Knight Writer can be found online and at Fireside Books.