The public's perceptions of an English teacher's job present a great dichotomy of purpose. On one hand, the teacher is to empower students to be fluid writers, to create an environment where students feel comfortable to express themselves in whatever way they most adept. On the other hand, the parents and community members rail that the "schools" don't focus on the basics, that "they"don't stress spelling or grammar any more.

Yes, we want to help little Johnny and Jane to flow. We want to work through the whole writing process with them. And that is what is built into the schedule of inclass activities. We will sort through prewriting, say, on Monday and move into an initial draft writing on Tuesday. Oops, Jane is not present on Monday and thus on Tuesday she has nothing from which to create a rough draft. Personalized instructions to help her and the other four students who were absent take up time scheduled for the teacher to assist with rough drafts. Experience tells me that requiring make-up to be dealt with outside of class does not work. So Jane and her compatriots fall further behind. Oh, don't worry, honey, just let it flow.

So editing day comes along and in the perfect we all know in our classrooms, Johnny and Jane and their classmates all have their rough copies ready for editing groups. Much to their embarassment, sweethearts Jane and Ralph are in the same group and Ralph doesn't want to tell Jane that her

paper jumps all around and doesn't make sense. He waits while the other two members make comments and then tells Jane how great the paper is, how it really is clear and he doesn't see any errors in it. After all it isn't his responsibility to tell Jane that her writing stinks. The teacher should know and step in. Ralph doesn't want to risk his sweet honey's love all for a paper that shows she's a twit.

The.groups finish their work and the papers are finalized according to the responses. Jane receives a "D" from her teacher evaluation and flares up because her group said it was good,and her loving parents read it and said it was "wonderful." What 's the value of a response group if the teacher is going to stifle the creativity of the writer and nitpick?

This scenario happens all too frequently. Perfect worlds don't occur in our classrooms. Class size causes more writing to skip past the hands of the teacher in the editing process; egos, crushes, and grudges play themselves out in the editing groups. We learn to dance lightly around the self-esteems of young writers and yet constantly suggest the way to improvement. Some editors are dancing to the "Funky Chicken", while others waltz with finesse.

So much depends on the strength of character of our students.and their parents. The building and the shaping of their writing is not the only thing we must develop. They must take hold of a purpose for their education rather than turningit solely to the schools. The need for an intrinsic value to education is at the heart of so many of the conflicts in our system. In my little classroom, this concept is huge, but I must deal with it by the atmosphere I create of respecting my students for "who they are" and pushing them on to better themselves. At one point regarding content, the writing class must be the most subjective and emotive class in the school, but for issues of pure communication, it must take on solidly objective guidelines in order to emphasize clarity.