Many parents of home-schooled teenagers ask themselves: "Is my child missing out on science or math or even writing skills by not being in the 'mainstream?' Will they survive college?" Having been both a home-school dad and a public and private high school teacher, I know the questions.

I also know the answers. "NO! Your child is not missing out." And: "They will make you proud."

Hindrances to Writing Well:

Now, however, as a college instructor of developmental writing, I see the lacks and the blockages that prevent incoming students from expressing themselves intelligently and creatively in written English at a college level. They are not stupid; they do have something worth saying, but written English is a formidable thing to them.

One student, Amanda, told me, "I always dreaded writing class, but my thoughts on writing have changed. Writing truly does help you to visualize and express who you are. It has become natural, and I do not dread it now."

What Students Really Want:

Do not make the mistake, though, of depending on any modern college, public or private, to impart to your teenagers the writing skills they need for success in college and in life.

Much of what passes for writing instruction in today's world both confuses incoming students and leaves them vulnerable to some of the manipulative philosophies that pervade modern education. On the other hand, those who enter college fully equipped with the ability to think clearly through written English are much more able, not only to hold their own, but to excel.

Modern education wants students to "feel good" about themselves, to learn from their peers, to express their "feelings" and "beliefs" about the given topic. I find that students look for something entirely different. My students want three things, and I suspect your teenagers do as well. They want clarity of thought, they want to do for themselves what is being taught, and they want to leave a course convinced that their time spent has given them meaningful skills that bring immediate benefits.

A Different Way to Learn Writing:

First, your own students need to have the skills of written English made immediately clear to them.

Second, they should write and re-write and re-write their own work, not wasting time fixing programmed "mistakes" in someone else's writing. You will be moved by the clarity and power of the final drafts your children write; they will be amazed as well.

Third, your child must experience the certain knowledge that they know how to write well. Based on that knowledge, further creativity and expression come easily. When a student knows how to write well, every future writing task becomes a challenge to be won.

Teaching Philosophy:

How do you approach teaching writing in a way that will accomplish good results for any child. That is a question I often ask myself when I reject all the second drafts my students turn in, making them do it all over again, and even then still don't see what the paper must become for the final draft.

I want to share with you a teaching philosophy that has helped me.

The teaching philosophy, the approach to learning to write well, that I have found useful for writing students consists of three simple things. The first is to have your writing learner copy good writing. Second is to allow them to write freely without thought of rules - and then, require them to re-write and re-write and re-write until the paper is clear and powerful. And the third is for your student to hit the brick wall of a hard-nosed editor who refuses to accept mediocrity, ambiguity, or otherwise boring drivel passed off as written English. It is to deal with the need to change how one writes, and, in desperation almost, pull out of the insides, one's very best.

Where to Begin:

I start all of my writing students with a Personal Narrative paper for three specific reasons. First, if we write well only what we know, there is nothing we know more than our own story. More than that, people and their stories are interesting. Seeing one's own story written powerfully, and knowing, "I wrote that," does more for your child's self-esteem than all the "feel-good" sessions put together.

The third reason I have learned from years of experience teaching writing skills to teenagers. Narrative writing is the best place to learn what exactly makes the difference between boring writing that is read only by those paid to read it versus writing that moves its readers, making them eager to read more. People's stories and life experiences are always interesting - if written well.

Approaching home-school writing in this way will produce results in your teenager's writing skills that will make you proud.