- This is a rare moment for me and this blog. Below is a letter I have sent to my senators and representatives regarding the current budget bill and the National Writing Project. I post it here on my blog to, hopefully, inform people about the Writing Project and this fiscal situation. I normally do not ask this, but I am requesting that if you read this, you repost it on your Facebook, blog, Twitter, whatever. Send it in an email to your friends. Write your own letter. If you can, if you want to, be involved in some way in this.This is something that is very important to me, and, I feel, is important to us as a nation. Please spread this message; I thank you in advance.
- Visit: www.nwp.org; www.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=6957
In the winter of 2005, my English department head approached me with a flyer and a question.
"Would you be interested in doing this writing project thing at Central Connecticut State?"
Having no idea what I was getting myself into, I agreed to apply, and, that spring, I was accepted into the Central Connecticut Writing Project.
That decision changed my life, and I say that without an ounce of hyperbole or melodrama. Since 2006, the summer I participated in the CCWP Invitational Summer Institute, my life has significantly, fundamentally, and permanently improved.
The CCWP has made me a better teacher, a very good teacher, in fact. It has made me a competent mentor to student teachers and peers. The CCWP helped me rediscover myself as a writer and is the reason why I was able to both write and publish my first novel.
For these changes I can only partially credit myself because the lion's share of the recognition goes to the CCWP and the National Writing Project community as a whole. Since 2007, I have attended every NWP national conference (offered at no cost), where incredible members of the NWP family offer the most useful and insightful lessons about writing and teaching one can find.
I will be forever grateful for what the Writing Project has given me, and my continued involvement as a site co-director serves as the means by which I give back to the organization that has given me more than I could have imagined.
Therefore, I am overcome with disappointment and disbelief when I read that the federal funding for the National Writing Project has been entirely removed from the current federal budget.
In his State of the Union Address, President Obama stressed that teachers must be regarded as "nation builders" and that America must "out-educate" the rest of the world to maintain its global influence. Yet, despite this national goal, this Administration and Congress have, at this point, decided not to provide funding for a program that has been proven, through research, to improve teacher effectiveness and student achievement.If this government is serious about its own priorities, it needs to make a conscious effort to support the National Writing Project.
I have been a high school English teacher for nine years, and, in that time, I must admit, grudgingly, that I have become embittered and cynical in reference to the topic of professional development. It has been my experience that education is rife with people selling snake oil and magic bullets under the guise of educational innovation. These people often cite standardized test scores as a measurement of their effectiveness, but one must never lose sight of the fact that profit is at the heart of their actions. These programs are often gimmicky and fleeting, and quickly replaced with thinly veiled copies of themselves.
The Writing Project is the antithesis of these types of professional development programs. The Writing Project evolves as its members evolves, therefore its reforms are organic and authentic. As a non-profit, the Writing Project seeks nothing more than to provide real influence and change in education. When I entered the program in that summer of 2006, I honestly expected more of the same: educational tricks and illusions bereft of substance. What I found instead was the only professional development program I truly believe in. I believe in it because its effectiveness is evidenced in me and in the countless others who have been forever changed by their Writing Project experiences.
It is for these reasons that I ask that you to renew the funding for the National Writing Project. This is not a program at which money is thrown and forgotten. Every dollar spent on the Writing Project in an investment with returns innumerable. Each dollar returns in the form of a better teacher, a more prepared student, an articulate and effective writer, and, eventually, in the form of a stronger nation.
I thank you for your time, and ask again that you take the steps necessary to return funding to the National Writing Project.
Sincerely,
Nick Chanese
Central Connecticut Writing Project - Co-Director\
English Teacher - Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, Hartford, CT.
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