Student Outlook -- Kellie Brownell

It is the common practice among elementary school teachers to

discipline their students into writing within the lines and in accordance

with the Palmer handwriting standards. This widely practiced tradition of

concentrating on how, as opposed to what, is being written seems to

impede, rather than nurture, a sense of creativity and individuality in

each child.

Granted, a D should be legible enough to distinguish it from a P, but

the method through which that difference in expressed to a wide-eyed

5-year-old who defies the handwriting stereotype can have various

effects. Even though many of us high school students don’t have any

problems writing in cursive any longer, we are still in a constant

struggle to ensure that we are writing our own lives instead of people

writing them for us.

After months and years of standardized tests that seek to conform and

group students based on narrow guidelines, it may seem difficult to

transcend the imposing stereotypes that have been placed upon us by

teachers, colleges, schools, parents and even friends.

However, whether you get A’s or straight F’s, your grades have little

correlation to the intellectual and individual liberties that lie before

you. Waiting around for a report card to come in the mail is not the best

way to go about freeing who you are from the way people have decided to

“write” you.

You have to take action by defying your stereotypes through creative

expression and start controlling your own self image. Too often, people

desire a recognition of their individuality without defining who they are

in a meaningful way that can be personally inspired yet shared.

Even though writing is such an integral part of everyday life, certain

scholastic traditions have hammered home the association of writing with

various types of humiliation: from having to write “I will not pull

Jane’s hair” one hundred times on the blackboard to reading a note to the

class.

But writing has the potential to fulfill the positive aspects of self

expression as well. Finding outlets in which to define your individuality

of ideas, beliefs and creativity can be discovered in many different

enjoyable mediums.

To limit one’s expression to five paragraph essays, would be denying

the creative potential that lies in journals, poems, short stories,

memoirs and even epic tales. Though it has long been used by people to

articulate a particular image through the written word, it is far from

the only language by which you can express originality. The language of

music, art, dance, sports, drama, etc., all carry as much expressive

power as words.

But these opportunities are powerless unless you invest the time to

define yourself instead of sitting back and letting others define you. As

you get ready to move up a grade or out of school, always keep in mind

the importance of writing your own life, composing your own symphony and

painting your own masterpiece.

* KELLIE BROWNELL is a junior at Newport Harbor High School where she

is editor-in-chief of the Beacon. Her columns will appear occasionally in

the Community Forum section.