Why I Like Basic Writing Students

I really like working with basic writing students, for the most part.  I love their writing.  It is so raw and real.  Today, a student came in and asked me to proofread her essay.  She wrote about her mother.  She wrote about what it was like growing up with a mom who was the town drunk.  She explained how the kids learned to deal with their alcoholic mother's antics.  They would leave school for the day and head over to the bar, where their mother was on either her first, second or third beer.  They hoped to arrive sooner rather than later, so that Mom would only be on her first or second beer, and thus would be more able to communicate with the kids about their day, or their needs.  If she was coherent, she would take them to the store or take them home and they'd start their afternoon and evening. 

Mom was always in danger of losing her job, as you can imagine.  Things were really chaotic in this household.  Eventually Mom realized she needed to quit drinking, and she did, enduring three weeks of withdrawal.  At this point, my student writes that she had an epiphany:  "Mom needed something creative to do with  her time."   She wrote that she suggested to her mom, "Why don't you come to the school and help out in the classroom?  The teachers always need extra help."  She reported in her story that her mom actually took her daughter up on her offer, and showed up at the school, sober and ready and willing to help.  She never looked back.  She stayed sober and became an uber-volunteer.  She loved the school, the teachers and the students.  The teachers appreciated her.  The family lost their negative reputation in the town,  and the kids' lives improved immensely.  She talked about how proud she was of her mother.  This young lady had saved her mom's life, and she was writing about how proud she was of her mother!  I was moved by this girl's courage, and by her humility.

We worked on the essay and improved it, starting with spelling errors and moving on to sentence structure and paragraph development.  But I essentially told my student, "Overall, I would not change a thing about your essay's content.  I loved it."  She looked and me and said, "Thanks."   I said, "How is your mom doing now?"  She hesitated and then replied, "I'm a little sad right now because she died two months ago.  Today is her birthday." 

There are no words for a moment like that.  I was stunned.  How unfair!  I told her how sorry I was.  I said, you saved your mom's life when you were just a little girl. You did a very brave and wise thing.  You are very special.  This young lady just looked at me.  I could tell, just by looking at her, that life was still difficult for her, even though her mom had sobered up years ago.  Mom was now gone and she was on her own.  Her appearance did not indicate that her life was going swimmingly.  Here she was in a basic writing class, trying to gain full admission into the university.  Yet she was working hard, and doing her best.  In this one little essay, she captured what I might term the "anatomy" of growing up the child of an alcoholic.  How does one get over that?  What else was she not saying in her essay?  She did such a great job dissecting the subject.  And why not -- she was an expert in it.  She knew it from the inside out. 

During our meeting she exuded such tenderness, even though her edges were rough.  I think if you live long enough, God blesses you with chance meetings like I had today with this young lady.  Today, and on quite a few days recently, I feel incomparably rich.