The Politics of Art
blue and orange food
See page 6 & 7
truck review, see page 9
parkland a year later, see page 5
Fremont High School
the
PHOENIX
Vol. 7 Issue No. 4 Feb. 1, 2019
The State of creative writing at FHS by Fiona O’Bannon & Emily Wilson
Collaboration
In light of the recent poetry performance hosted by Fremont High School on January 11, where poets Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay advocated for the power of spoken word and creativity, questions about the lack of creative writing in Fremont’s curriculum have arisen. Creative writing is a form of writing which typically focuses on more imaginative descriptions to produce written stories, poetry or song lyrics. There are many students at Fremont with a passion for creative writing, such as senior Shobhana Shreedhar, who has been writing fictional stories since age six. They have since developed a specialty in fictional fantasy writing and world-building. They are currently trying to get a book that they have been working on for four years published. “My book started out as a typical high fantasy, reminiscent of Lord of the Rings, but I quickly began incorporating real-life struggles and all sorts of representation… It’s deeply important to me that I accurately represent as many people as possible in my writing,” Shreedhar said. “I think creative writing fosters empathy, emotional control, and of course imagination in anyone who undertakes it. It allows writers to step into other people’s shoes, which is something I feel is highly important in today’s society.” The nature of creative writing, however, differs from the goals of American high school English curriculums, which instead focuses on analytical and technical writing. The Fremont Union High School District requires all enrolled students to take 40 credits of preparatory English composition and literature in order to graduate. This also meets
the four year UC and CSU A-G English requirements that students must fulfill if they are planning to pursue a higher education. Fremont High School offers an assortment of eight different English classes, varying in academic rigor, and allowing students to choose between regular, honors and AP level classes. Although the district offers multiple English courses with a variety of focuses, the FUHSD lacks a course focused on the development of creative writing. Instead, most courses focus on developing a student’s critical thinking ability and analytical skills. California is one of 41 states that have adopted the Common Core State standards of education. The Common Core curriculum outlines what students should know and be able to do at the end of each grade level in regards to mathematics and English language arts literacy. The Common Core English language arts standards focus around helping students develop critical thinking and analytical writing skills in preparation for college, career and life success. While these skills have been determined as essential for students to prepare for their future success, these standards also guide teachers to incorporate more analytical essay writing in their curriculums. English teachers are often challenged to teach students a balance of reading, writing, listening and comprehension skills that will prepare them for the future. Although teachers may be willing to incorporate more creative writing assignments into the curriculum, the needs of the students may require that they focus their time on teaching other skills. As high schoolers are expected to enroll for standardized tests
such as the SAT, ACT, and state testing, teachers are adjusting their curriculum to account for the needs and increasing expectations of the students. “I don’t think it’s something that is officially stated in our job, but I think that as English teachers, knowing that your [students] will take SATs [their] junior year … in terms of the reading and being able to critically think, a lot of what we do in our classes also have to reflect you being able to demonstrate that you’ve mastered those skills”, Story and Style teacher Robert Javier said. In this subtle shift towards preparing students for analytical and technical writing, creative writing focused projects can sometimes become a secondary priority for teachers. AP English Literature, for example, has an entire unit dedicated to creative writing. However, students who do not wish to enroll in AP level English classes will not have access to that unit. Despite this, Fremont teachers are still looking to expose students to various aspects of creative writing through other means. “I think what you see more often though, are ways that teachers have incorporated creativity,” Fremont’s English Department Chair, Amy Gibson said. “Not all classes have an entire unit dedicated to it, but there are many creative assignments that teachers do, and I think that’s pretty common.” Yet not all students are satisfied with this compromised solution. Instead they argue that the prompts are more there for the sake of trying to incorporate creativity into a task rather than inspire students to write creatively. “I’m not very satisfied with
it, frankly. In the rare times that we are able to do creative writing assignments, they’re almost always constrained by a dry, uninspiring prompt. If teachers could pick prompts from online writing blogs, that would make things a lot better,” Shreedhar said. Some students have proposed the idea of adding a creative writing course as a separate elective and allowing students to gain formal guidance to grow their creative writing skills. However, formally adding creative writing as an elective, or formal unit in standard classes, may be too difficult to implement. This is partially because all courses must be approved by the FUHSD, and partially because it would be an additional course load for teachers to organize and teach.
It allows writers to step into other people’s shoes, which is something I feel is highly important in today’s society. Shobhana ShreedhaR Additionally, creative writing may not be beneficial or an interest for all students to spend time learning. Students interested in pursuing STEM based careers, or doing research in college, may find that refining their analytical writing skills to be more useful way to spend their time. “It kind of depends on what you major in. Writing is absolutely a skill, and that’s very pervasive. Critical thinking is
an important skill. Creativity is important, but creative writing is more English based,” Gibson said. Despite challenges in dedicating more school time towards creative writing, Fremont’s staff supports students expressing themselves through creative writing. “It might not be just from the writing itself, but it might just be from the overall experience. […] it could be the sharing in a writers workshop sort of way, what your peers have written. That sort of writing and exposure I feel people can benefit from,” Javier said. Both independent and community based explorations are viewed as a positive solution to student’s desire to engage with creative writing outside of school curriculum. Ruben Zamora, one Fremont’s librarians, is a vocal supporter of creative writing and expression. He continues to advocate for these art forms by organizing the poetry performance that brought internationally known poets Phil Kaye and Sarah Kay to Fremont, on behalf of their organization, Project Voice. Sarah and Phil founded Project Voice which is, according to their website, an organization that uses spoken word poetry to entertain, educate, and inspire people of all ages. He also offers a clear perspective of the shift away in student interest from these methods of expression as he once led the club, License to Speak, an outlet for freshmen and seniors alike to share their writing. However, as students graduated, and academic focus continued to advance towards standardized testing, License to Speak was disbanded. Student interest at Fremont has shifted towards STEM
based subjects partially due to the increased presence of tech corporations in Silicon Valley. Amid this STEM focused community, niches of creative writers and artists have arisen. “Society still regards this art form highly. As proven by Sarah and Phil’s sold out shows at public theaters across the country. Our students have not had the enthusiasm to investigate and cultivate the art form with each other and on campus, the way they once did” Zamora said. Despite no longer heading the club, Zamora still encourages curious students to engage in creative writing art forms. “I’m here to encourage, I’m here to advise, I’m here to help nurture anyone who wants to grow their writing, public speaking, spoken word,” Zamora said. While Zamora fully supports students who desire to get involved with creative writing, he underlines the importance of students advocating for their interests themselves. The initiative to restart a poetry movement at FHS needs to come from the students first. “It’s a little bit disheartening for me, because I want to see it happen, but I can’t push,” Zamora said. Fremont’s Creative Writing Club, which meets every Thursday at lunch, has established itself as a base for creative writing minded students to gather in absence of License to Speak. Alternatively, the Creative Union of Literature offers students opportunities to get involved with communities and events outside of Fremont. They organize participation in writing competitions, festivals and projects such as the National Novel Writing Month. Through engagement with clubs, organized events and independent exploration, interested students can surely find creative solutions to develop and improve their creative writing skills.
FHS Phoenix | Samhitha Tumkur