on the inadequacy of writing skills in today’s job seekers.
The article expresses a consensus among businesses that good
communicators are hard to find. One business manager from T. Rowe Price said, "It's amazing, the frequent disconnect… These are people who all did the very best at the best schools, probably since preschool, but they really have not developed their writing skills to the degree that they would have to succeed in this organization."
Frankly, I’m not surprised to read such a report as this. Having spent 20 years in the U.S. Navy in various assignments, I found far more people who could not write effectively than those who could. I observed
how the commanding officer of each of my squadrons would quickly discern which of his junior officers wrote and spoke well, and then depend on those officers for the most important work. Effective communicators tended to float to the top, both in the squadron and over the course of one’s career.
My time teaching history in college gave me even more concerns regarding this generation’s lack of writing ability. The vast majority of the freshman I taught could not write a sound argument on almost any topic.
Rather, they tended to regurgitate an incoherent collection of facts and thoughts, as they were in the habit of doing for the kind of standardized exams that had affirmed them up to that point. Their elementary and high schools had not prepared them.
So, what do we do at Trinity to teach effective writing?
- The very nature of a classical education guides our curriculum, exams and requirements toward rhetoric skills beginning in Kindergarten and continuing until twelfth grade.
- In elementary school, we use the rigorous and time-proven approaches of Spalding Reading and Spelling and
- Throughout the grammar years, our students write consistently for many purposes.
- The study of Latin improves vocabulary and a keen understanding of the grammar of language.
- Students in Kindergarten through 8th grade use curriculum and methods from the Institute of Excellence in Writing, which provides versatile structures for different types of written expression and recognizes that good composition requires hard work.
- Students learn formal logic in 7th grade and practice it through 12th grade.
- High School students must complete four credits in Writing in addition to Literature, far in excess of national
norms, even for advanced secondary schools. - The final senior thesis requires a 20-page paper to accompany the 20-minute presentation and 20-minute public defense on a controversial topic.
If that is ‘what’ Trinity does for effective writing, the ‘why’ is also important. Our goals in education do not end with college admission, getting a job, or succeeding in it. More ultimately, God made us expressive, relational beings. It is to His glory and delight when we beautifully express the great truths we know. “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” Proverbs 25:11
In Christ,
Stephen Sprague
Headmaster