Brookfield Academy has a long and proud tradition of preparing students to become writers. From the earliest grades, students here are immersed in language and literacy. Children in the Primary School learn to recognize and form printed and cursive letters, build a vocabulary, learn to spell, master phonics and become readers. Later, Lower School scholars learn how to diagram sentences, master grammar and syntax, read increasingly challenging texts, and continue to build on all the Primary School skills.

And the emphasis continues into the Middle School as every student, in addition to the traditional English class, has a dedicated Writing Workshop class. Here, all the basics of usage and grammar are reviewed and the process of creating an essay is taught. Students learn to take time to brainstorm, organize their thoughts, outline, focus on thesis and support, compose a draft and then revise. And all this effort is honed and brought to fruition in the Upper School in continued and advanced requirements.

Why so much effort on this skill, especially in a time when machines promise to do the work of writing for us with no more effort than a swipe and a tap?

Middle School English Department Chair Nick Niederman is passionate about teaching writing because “writing transcends the English discipline,” and “fosters analytical thought.” Meg Morello who teaches Writing Workshop at every Middle School level points out that “writing is a process!” Academy teachers understand that teaching writing is not about creating the end product and recording a grade. Niederman calls it “mental grappling,” the process of taking an impression or first opinion and carefully turning the initial thought into a crafted expression. Karen Ray, Upper School History Department chair succinctly sums it up: “Writing builds brain power.”

Every writing exercise is an indispensable opportunity to develop cognitive mastery. Grappling with the writing task forces clarity, precision, and logical sequence. Coupled with appropriately challenging reading, Brookfield Academy students develop mental schema, expand vocabulary, and encounter new ideas. We understand our world, we act as human beings, through language; the limits of our world are ultimately bounded by the limits of our language. Because we interpret the world and order our thoughts through language, the quality of our thinking depends heavily on the strength, nuance, and flexibility of our linguistic abilities. Individuals with well-developed language facility can reason more coherently, imagine alternative perspectives, and articulate their judgments with clarity.

“Learning to write, struggling with the growing of it,” says Heidi Siegrist-Ragan, Upper School English Department Chair, allows us to “mature as a human being. The ability to think and to thereby express ourselves honestly, freely, with respect and self-command is a gift from God.”