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Show Park Record Thursday, February 28, 1991 Page A1 1 Middle school students write for art's sake by DOROTHY SOLOMON Record guest writer Why write? This was the question I recently posed to students at Treasure Mountain Middle School. The students sat silently for a moment, mo-ment, then demonstrated their intimate in-timate association with writing by giving vivid responses all valid, each a reason to write for the sake of the process as well as for the product. pro-duct. "Why write?" I asked the rows of polite faces. "For fun," a student responded, grinning. How rewarding to discover that the students of TMMS know that writing, like other art forms, yields joy and pleasure! "For the record," said another. "So that others will know about you when you're gone." "To teach," said someone else, "so that you can pass what you know on to others." "To learn," said someone else, "because to write, you have to know what you're writing about. "To express feelings." "To share your ideas." "To communicate." "To entertain people." "To build relationships." "To change the world." The list went on and on. Indeed, writing is one form of expression that seems to have it all. Besides being be-ing useful in the academic world, and a sure-fire way to enhance any career, writing is a ready form for self -discovery and a means of sharing shar-ing one's vision. Writing is a wonderful self-teacher, self-teacher, for it requires every skill incipient in-cipient to literacy: thinking, writing, reading, responding and speaking-skills speaking-skills identified in the language arts curriculum are crucial to the writing process. Perhaps the most important form of thinking available through creative writing is anagogical thinking, which involves looking at life or literature with an eye for discovering meaning. In a world where values are often contradictory con-tradictory and principles are cloaked cloak-ed in confusion, anagogical thinking seems crucial. Our children need to be able to find meaning in their lives simply to preserve their emotional and mental health. TMMS Principal Dr. Brian Schiller, an advocate of creative writing in the classroom, observes, "Writing forces" us' to clarity and focus our values and beliefs. When we write something down, it commits com-mits us to do something." During my eleven years as an Artist Ar-tist in Residence, I have not participated par-ticipated in a program that spawned such joy and excitement in me. After traveling throughout the state and being invited to Idaho, Alaska and Nevada as a guest artist, I felt privileged to at last be allowed to work with the children of my own community, the children who play with my children, the young participants par-ticipants in the baseball and basketball basket-ball games, in the gymnastic events and dance recitals I attend the children of my friends and neighbors. I was pleased and relieved to find that the children of Park City have discovered the value of creative writing. Thanks is owed to the administration ad-ministration and teachers at the middle school for the strong em presents a FREE ten week Community o r i . . . . . i ii aeries ...J I';- ' ' Feb. Up-Date on Psychotropic Medication 28 presented by Joe Culbertson, AID. March Successfully Talking to Your Teen bresented In ludv Frukn. LCS.W March Adolescents and Substance Abuse It presented by Janice Dickinson, AfA Women and Relationships ; March 21 ; presented by janux Dtdun$on M.A. i fy" 25 w r 'ii: vt. tj t- -L jrl.i.M- Mav March Is it Possible to1 be 28 ' presented by Glenn tiwAife : phasis they have traditionally placed plac-ed on creative writing. I don't always conduct my Arts in Education in such a precipitous environment, en-vironment, therefore I don't take my responsibility as an Artist in Resident Resi-dent lightly. It's too important; too much depends on children learning that each has an artist within, and that their vision should be shared. Those who have a means of expressing express-ing their individual view of life feel intrinsically significant, and feel that they have the power to make a difference. Those who don't acknowledge this individuality or find expression for it often become pent-up or alienated from themselves and the world around them. What a pleasure, then, for me to be at home doing what I love to do in such a nurturing environment! We began at the beginning: with the writer's motto, paraphrased from Confucius: "Make life new again." And so we experimented with seeing things in a new way: First we tried using comparisons to rediscover the vitality in ourselves through metaphor and simile. Then we extend ex-tend it to the people in our lives, using us-ing the metaphor as a vessel for feeling feel-ing and character: "Mother" by TARA NICHOLSON You are a flower with petals swaying in the wind You are beautiful your soft fragrance clinging But when a storm comes and blows you apart Your seeds scatter everywhere You bury your anger And grow a new emotion "Sarah Drown" by SYLVIA KNUDSEN Like a cloud she dances through the air freely When upset, she pours her sorrow on herself like rain Sarah's the candle; I'm the fire. She keeps me going. Her bold hazel eyes are those of the sqft white bear . , in the dark, all alone. When I'm with her, her voice trembles in my ears as though a window had shattered and lightly fallen to the ground mortgage one.usq CASH OUT LOANS Call Michael Ayers or Paul Bithell 1-566-6280 1-800-487-6280 The CARE Centerin Park rocusea on menial weuness. LOCATION The CARE Center in Park City 1760 Prospector Avenue , Kirwin Building Thursday evenings. 7 D.m. to 8 SCHEDULE Ap"1 Eating Disorders 4 presented by Stephen Kitson, M.D. Ap1" Strengthening Your Stepfamily 11 presented by Beth Hughes, MA April Adolescent Depression 18 presented by Patricia Lindsay, PkD. Rektionships A . ,, April Sports Stress Free 5 May Co-Dependency: In Search of the Self For more information or to make reservations, please call The CARE Center in Park City at 649 2273. Program propels pens Local author Dorothy Solomon spent the past six weeks with Treasure Mountain Middle School's fourth through eighth grade students in a writing program pro-gram designed to inspire the Poe within the pupil. , Sponsored by the Utah Arts Council and TMMS, the Arts in Education writing residency is the first extended one in Park City. Ci-ty. Park City Ski Area also provided pro-vided some of the matching funds required by an Arts Council grant. The statewide program is actually ac-tually a dozen years old and when TMMS Principal Dr. Brian Schiller learned of it at the Utah Principal's Academy a few years ago, he decided to apply for a school grant. Together we try using our five senses, and employ examples to bring br-ing abstractions to life, to make ideas real: "Quiet" by JEFF SOLOMON There is the quiet while players wait till the ball goes in the hoop. There is the quiet at the front just before a war begins There is the quiet in the closet, waiting to be found. There is the silence before the car slams into another. There is the quiet when you are landing in an airplane. There is the quiet at a church as the morning dawns. There is the quiet at the sight of a friend, thinking what to say There is the quiet when people fight and one of them goes away. There is quiet in a bomb shelter, waiting to feel the bomb hit. There is the quiet when an inventor waits for his invention to work. And there is the quiet Just before a loved one dies. City Education A . , K D.m. Psychology and Everyday Life presented by Stuart Ludwig, PKD. presented by Steve Defa, M.A During the six-week program, Solomon, the author of "My Father's House," spoke to students about writing as an art form rather than a strictly academic subject. For the future, she says a TMMS reading is set for April to display and share student stu-dent works and Solomon hopes it will draw community support. During the writing program she discussed writing with teacher Linda Hilton's fifth grade class. Solomon asked students to look at the chalkboard in front of the room and use their imaginations imagina-tions to describe it. Students said it reminded them of "a highway" or "a candybar." And from that beginning, the group began to look at everyday objects from altogether different angles. "Anger" by BRITTANY CHRISTISON Anger rolls Iiek thunder raining out the fun Anger rolls like waves breaking on the shore Anger rolls and comes unravelled like a ball under a kitten's paw Hitting your elbow brings anger Continued on A12 NEED HELP WITH STUDY SKILLS? CALL Sylvan Learning i i Center. 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