Cursed Tongue: Further Proof that Critics Are Full of Crap

Posted by CursedTongue on May 16, 2007

Last week Cary-Grove High School senior Allen Lee was arrested for a free writing exercise, assigned by his English teacher. Students were instructed by teacher Nora Capron to write whatever came to mind, without going back to make corrections or censoring themselves.

Later that evening Capron was alarmed by Lee’s assignment, which contained foul language, violent imagery, and criticism of her teaching abilities. The last sentence warns Capron that she might inspire a
shooting at Cary-Grove.

Capron called the head of the English Department, who called the principal, who called the superintendent, who called the Cary Police Department. The next morning an 18-year-old student, with a 4.2 grade point average, two months away from graduation, and with no history of trouble was confronted by police on his walk to school. Instead of contacting the boy’s parents and assessing the situation, Lee was charged with disorderly conduct.

Consequently, the Marines released Lee from his enlistment contract. God bless the Marines, they’ve born the brunt of the Iraq War, and the citizens of the U.S.A. owe them immeasurable gratitude. But if you’re a young, able-bodied person you’re in trouble if the Marines won’t take you. The authorities in Cary, Ill., have damaged Lee’s name and his future, and the worst he can be proven to be guilty of is poor judgment.

The free writing exercise completed by Allen Lee is very familiar to me. I do it myself every morning when I begin writing. Uncensored, un-critiqued, I type whatever comes into my warped mind. Some of my more brilliant (or at least I think they’re brilliant) story twists, jokes and turns of phrase have been part of this intellectual spew. But most of it is stupid, intensely personal, or inane.

I would leave my baby nephew in the care of Britney Spears before I showed the results of a free writing exercise to any one. It’s completely raw story. So raw, it lacks things like plot, character and sense. Kind of like an episode of Lost. When I free write, I don’t think about how I’ve just copied ABBA lyrics on to my computer. I don’t worry about the thought police showing up at my house the next morning. I don’t fret about going to jail for writing something offensive.

Free writing is the beginning of a product. Reading someone’s free writing is kind of like listening to Ozzy Osborne without subtitles. Some of it makes sense, but there’s no way to be sure what the garbled parts mean. How could someone even grade an assignment, the point of which was to write whatever came to mind? Isn’t the only way to get an “F” to write nothing? Does the student whose thoughts have the best sentence structure set the curve?

Having read Lee’s free writing composition, I can say with confidence that I’ve seen more disturbing things in a Disney flick. Even if we exclude Bambi. The text contains violent imagery and foul language, but nothing excessively so for stream-of-conscious writing from an American teen exposed to Quentin Tarantino, Grand Theft Auto, and demeaning commercials for Crest Whitestrips.

It’s clear that Lee is suffering from Spring Fever, and frustrated with his English teacher. The threat Lee poses to the school is not obvious in the text. He didn’t outline a plan for terrorizing the school. He didn’t make any direct threats.

Cary-Grove High School teachers include meaningful quotes as part of their profiles on the school’s Web site. The fresh and dewy-eyed (or so I imagine) Capron, chose the following quote: “Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Work like you don’t need the money. Love like you’ve never been hurt. And dance like no one is watching.” The quote is unattributed, probably because no one is willing to admit they wrote it. If her favorite quote was pilfered from her “Kittens in Baskets” inspirational calendar, I think that explains why Lee might be frustrated with her method of teaching English.

I envision Capron teaching with a cup of understanding, a teaspoon of encouragement and a pinch of inspiration. Only she forgot the two cups of literary appreciation. Mix in a classroom of teens hopped up on hormones, Full Throttle Fury and the Rap music, and tell me they aren’t all fed up with Little Ms. Sunshine by the time Spring rolls around.

In school, I didn’t hate the teachers who were exacting and stringent. I hated the teachers who seemed to have no valuable information to add to the academic conversation. It was unbelievably frustrating to have an Algebra teacher that had trouble explaining equations. It was torture trying to learn something in drama class, from a teacher whose only apparent qualification was once having been to ballet class.

School officials in Cary have created a school where honesty in art is severely punished. (What is art but telling the truth?) They’ve created an environment where negative emotions will be suppressed until they fester and ferment, which will ultimately brew trouble.

- Sarah Letnes

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