Creative Writing

I know that it is debated within MTC whether or not it is appropriate to assign writing as a form of punishment. I hope to blog about this question, and I find it a very important issue to address, - but, in this post, it is an issue I wish to avoid.

The following is a sample, from one of my summer school students, of a one page paper assigned as a consequence for disrupting class:

Rules are important at school cause if you didn't have rules the school would be a bird pin. It would be just like birds flying through school making a mess. Rules are not meant to be broken. You should not break rules especially during school cause you will be punished. That is why some of the kids act like they do during school, cause they don't have enough rules. Respect the rules.

This is incredible to me. The student who handed this paper in to me is a constant discipline problem. A very sweet and very smart young man, but - I think - gets bored and frustrated in the classroom. He was not doing well on his work or tests, but has become more of an active participant, and seems to be having an easier time grasping alot of the material. Reading this short paper, though, I was totally blown away by how eloquent his bird pen example was. He has beautiful handwriting, and the analogy was so clever to me. I also recognize that there may be more grammatically correct ways of writing what he did, but I am so torn as to whether or not I should stress these grammar issues upon students.
Of course, I believe that everyone should have a basic knowledge of proper grammar, and it is obvious that many of these kids don't. However, the writing they do turn in to me, although full of grammar and spelling mistakes, is BEAUTIFUL. And, I think that so much of that beauty is due to those mistakes. The same way that Faulkner or O'Connor would write a dialogue between two or more people from the south, is how these students are writing to me - It's an internal dialogue of sorts. I do not mean to compare my students to characters in famous stories; I merely wish to say that the dialect they write in is fascinating, and - in its own way - brilliant.
Of course, Faulkner and O'Connor knew proper english as well as their own southern style. That is probably the most important factor for me to keep in mind while thinking about this issue. While I do think that their writing and imagery is amazing, it may be better for me to stress the difference between creative writing and professional/"proper" wrting. I do not want them to lose any part of their imagination and dialect, but I do want them to recognize that there is proper english and that there is a proper time to employ it.

On a final note, I also assigned a page of writing to a student who would not stay in his seat while we were discussing factors. The final line of his paper was, I will not be the least common factor of this class anymore.