Dear Editors:



It was with great amusement and satisfaction that I read Jacob Berezin’s ironic editorial screed against the five paragraphs essay. Did Jacob realize that his mental gymnastics landed him in the same five-paragraph hole that he so deftly decried? Or was that merely the intention of a brilliant, sardonic writer? Nonetheless, if we are to take Berizan’s point seriously (and this English teacher does), then what he proposes is a most welcome idea.

In a phrase, Jacob is right on. Students, as he aptly points out, are in fact being taught only one type of writing in their high school experience. Ironically, this instance on a proper form and thinking is one of the major reasons why so many of our students are performing miserably on standardized test, ditching school, and failing the CASHEE. Imagine watching an educational rerun (the five paragraph essay) 15 times a year, year in and year out, and then be exposed to sit up straight in your desk and feign excitement over the next writing lesson. This, in effect, is what our educational does to students when insist on this one-size-fits-all form of writing.

In my English classes, students write in journals, compose letters, create comic strip, type up editorials, scribe speeches, and—this is the key—they write about what they feel is important, something real writers do. Unfortunately, the five-paragraph essay doesn’t afford that real life experience,

Writing is about freedom; freedom to express ideas, freedom to provoke thought, and the freedom to bring joy to one’s existence. And, if the writing is accomplished enough, the freedom and power to bring happiness to others. If my colleagues in the persuasive writing they have read (think letters, speech, poems, songs, cartoon, screen plays, ect,) then, they too, would heed the pearls from this intellectual man/child and find other ways for students to display their brilliance and knowledge of the world and works they study.