May 23, 2007
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David Eggers:
- “I had great teachers. I had fantastic teachers, all the way through school. At least I was encouraged by them. I never had an English teacher who said no you’ve got to fit in this category and you’ve got to write this way.”
- “I think it’s always the great killer of any potential writer if an adult says no it’s got to be this way, this is how it’s done, five paragraphs, topic sentence, introduction, conclusion, whatever. I think that the teachers we learn a lot from really untether their students and let them go at it from whatever angle they feel they should. The last thing you want to do is impose any kind of paralysis before they get started.”
- “I think that once students know you’re serious and once you’re setting an example where you’re being honest and you’re saying you will not be judged, you will not be chastised, there’s no wrong, that’s where you get the most incredible writing. We’ve gotten it out of every conceivable student. But then we are sticklers about grammar and everything like that completely. It’s not just rainbows and unicorns, we’re really nuts and bolts about it. Students are always more happy to do all the mechanical stuff if they’re expressing themselves in a way they feel is honest.”
{from his keynote at an arts and humanities summit at NDSU}
