Quality Education Create Writers
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Quality Education Create Writers
Writing is like breathing – you breathe in air into your lungs and it does its job, then after, you breathe it out. You take in information through learning and you take out information through writing. You and others benefit from the writing and it lasts as a legacy for a long time after you are gone.
Writing is a Learned Skill not a nature’s gift
The history of writing is very fascinating. This skill didn’t just occur to humans in a sudden flash of inspiration, it was learned through trial and error over a long time period span of more than ten thousand years. Like everything invented, writing was necessitated by the need to communicate and interact in other ways other than face-to-face communication.
People need to communicate to others not just by face-to-face interaction, but by distance communication and passing of information through a medium even if the recipient is far away from the communicator. From communication through figure scratching, carving, painting, molding of figurines to the invention of symbolic figures and character like the hieroglyphic characters.
Then the eventual evolution of the alphabets which most modern languages are written with. Like the modern English language which twenty-six alphabetical characters is used to form written words. Writing has become one of the greatest invention by man for through writing, humans can preserve knowledge, ideas, experiences for generations, even possibly forever.
It is not a nature’s gift as some say. It is a learned skill which can be taught to anyone. As a writer, I have to continuously practice the skill to be more proficient. I am not perfect, and I am still learning; no writer is perfect, we only have proficient writers.
Writing Skill can be Developed from Infancy
The skill of writing, like all things learned can be taught from infancy. This is done by exposing the minds of infants to books and other learning materials. By the time kids are familiar with books and other learning resources, they form a good reading habit. Reading deepens knowledge about things and help to create ideas.
In as much as reading is important in writing, it is not enough. Being able to put down ideas in written form demands the knowledge and understanding of the writing process – sentence/paragraph structure, writing conventions, punctuations, grammar mechanics, rhetorical organization, drafting, revising, proof reading, and publishing. To learn these skills from infancy is very crucial. Continuous practice on writing helps kids to keep learning and mastering of these skills as they develop to better writers.
Quality Education System Emphasizes the Teaching of Writing Skills
Poor-quality education system looks down on the imbibing of writing skills to students. For the students of poor-quality education system learn and master copying of teacher’s written long notes on the blackboard. Instead of the students to form notes by themselves through the skill of writing which ought to have been bestowed to them, they copy those of the teacher’s which are often too long and poorly written for student’s understanding. The students lack the knowledge of creating their own notes/writings. Thus, many graduates find it hard to compose prose, essays, memos, and other elementary compositions.
Such students from poor-quality education commit grammatical blunders, sentence/paragraph errors, punctuation errors, no cue of the writing processes. Meanwhile, high-quality education system put strong emphasis on the imbibing of quality writing skills to students and they ensure that most students have this skill.
Learning materials and activities books that are focused on the building of writing skills are developed and made available to students of high-quality school system. Dedicated teachers who are well-trained facilitate students’ writing skills. Students are expected to practice massively in order to be proficient. Hence, it becomes easier for students to have their books published in their life-time and on the fields and knowledge they choose to master.
A Nation of Writers is an Advanced Society
Over 4500 e-books are self-published daily in the United States. This is not among the thousands of books published by publishing houses in the U.S daily. Similar high number of published books are recorded in all the advanced societies. Why?
Everything you see that are made by man had existed as ideas in books and many more that are coming would exist first as ideas from someone’s brain to information on books, then to the physical form as products and services. You can’t build a mansion with no blueprint/building plan. Same goes to every other thing. Even clothes and shoes and comedy and spoons… all have to move from the brain to books to physical existence.
Nations that are on the path of economic development understands that if they must develop economically, they must write more ideas on books which would become physical development and growth. Before a writer begin to write, one key question the writer asks his/herself is, what problem are my solving? If the writing does not solve any problem, people will not bother themselves to read it.
However, if a piece of writing is focused on providing solutions to people’s problems. They’ll read to learn how they to solve their problems. So advanced communities are aware that the more people write, the more problems are solved. When problems get solved, it translates to economic development. For other people from other countries who are having similar problem would like to pay for the solution.
So economic advancement is spun-on by the writing activities of citizens whose minds live great ideas that eventually develop a nation.
Only High-Quality Education Can Make Nigeria a Nation of Writers
As I had clearly pointed out above, poor-quality education system looks down in writing skills while high-quality education system emphasizes on writing skills. As poor-quality education education situation permeates in Nigeria, how can writers emerge and strive? Nigerians see writing as a difficult activity. How many books are written by Nigerians in a year? I bet, just a handful. How detailed are even the few books Nigerians publish? Even the academic books? Then how fertile is the book market in Nigeria?
No dramatic progress in the area of writing can be achieved without the instituting of quality education system in Nigeria. High-quality education system is the engine room of creative development. When high number of Nigerians are exposed to quality education system they will come off as well-trained writers. As proficient writers, they will put down solutions to problems in written form which would eventually translate to physical solutions.
Writing skill is a learned skill and it is an important skill that develops a nation. But only the nations that are aware of the benefits of this skill lay emphasis to the teaching of it in schools. Let’s all help to bring on quality education in Nigeria so that writing skill be focused on, and we would reap the benefits of this amazing skill.
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