The Foundational Myth: Schools are the Problem

The schools take away voices, to be blunt. What do I mean by voice? I mean the imprint of the person on the piece of writing. The way in which a writer chooses, selects and organises information towards the writer's own intention. The voice is the frame of the window where the person is present around the information so that the reader can see through the information like a glass, and see it clearly with the writer getting out of the way but being present enough to shape it so that it can be seen. (472 “Renters and Owners: Donald Graves on Writing,” The English Magazine, NIE Report Package)

Some children will be delighted to return to school in a few weeks, but a growing number of American children hate the prospect. They will reminded daily that they are failures, hopelessly behind, and make little contribution to the school community. Ask these children what they know or can do well and they answer, "Nothing...Never could learn and never will." Many become behavior problems or lapse into indifference. ("Back to School" by Donald Graves, published in the Concord Monitor August 23, 1982)

See also "Writing Matters: From Commitment to Composition" by Elizabeth Chiseri-Strater, Mary Peterson, Susan Wheeler, especially their Introduction: "So You've Always Hated English?" (p. 7-12)

We are experts at stealing children's writing voices. (Graves, "Revision: In the Writer's Workshop and the in the Classroom," p. 39)