Breaking the shackles of expectations

Before we get to work on the grammar and style of writing – the how – I’d like us to begin with the why. I’m convinced that one of the most impactful ways we can integrate coaching principles into our language teaching is by approaching writing from a completely different perspective. As children we may have relished writing when it was presented as playful and fun. And then as we grew up we slowly came to accept that writing was something we did for others, often to prove ourselves. And so, gradually and almost imperceptibly, writing may well have ceased to be a source of joy and discovery.

As I write these very words I’m nervous. Will the quality of my writing live up to your expectations of me as a teacher? What if you spot a typo or a mispunctuated sentence? The truth is I feel a bit rusty when it comes to writing. I’m not used to having an audience – or should I say readership? And at the same time I feel a sense of excitement, for I know a small, committed group of fellow teachers will be reading my imperfect yet heart-felt words.

A friend recently used a particularly evocative metaphor to describe these expectations around writing. She referred to them as shackles. They constrain us and keep us from enjoying writing. And this led to a conversation about choosing to see writing not as an act of compliance but rather one of self-knowledge and creativity. So, while I will be doing my utmost to help you hone your writing skills from a technical perspective, I’m equally committed to reminding you that writing as a form of self-development is not a luxury – it’s an existential imperative.

The Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke gave the following advice to an aspiring writer:

I know no advice for you save this: to go into yourself and test the deeps in which your life takes rise; at its source you will find the answer to the question whether you must create. Accept it, just as it sounds, without inquiring into it. Perhaps it will turn out that you are called to be an artist. Then take that destiny upon yourself and bear it, its burden and its greatness, without ever asking what recompense might come from outside. For the creator must be a world for himself and find everything in himself and in Nature to whom he has attached himself.

What a blessing it must be to “be a world for yourself”! What if something as seemingly mundane as writing could model for our students a way for them to build a world for themselves? This is not only possible – it is necessary.

In the next section I’ll be introducing the concept of self-authoring and why it’s such a powerful tool for teachers and coaches and those of us in between.