Toward an Ethnohistory of Writing in American Education

Every school child is supposed to learn to write in school. This is the accepted fact about “the other half” of literacy—writing. ¹ No one asks why every school child should learn to write according to the ways in which writing is taught in school. Even children rarely ask the function of their learning to write. Most are generous enough to assume that even if they do not know the reasons for their seemingly endless activity, the teacher has some purpose. The need for more writing in schools is today a frequently voiced recommendation from critics of education. They berate school personnel for the declining standards in writing, the absence of fundamental skills, and the need for a return to the basics. These criticisms rarely meet with the blunt rebuttal “Why should we teach writing?” We often ask “Why teach grammar?” “Why should kids read?”, but we don’t ask “What is the ‘good’ of writing for most of the adults in today’s society?”