Today is Youth Literacy Day, and as I’m writing this post I’m thinking about my own experiences with language arts from my childhood. From my sixth-grade English teacher Mrs. Goldstein who told me to keep writing because my stuff was ‘hilarious but nobody even knows it yet’ to my high-school teacher Mr. Boone, who could hardly believe that a 16-year-old could write so ‘provocatively about a rustic guitar’ that I knew ‘nothing about,’ I gained a real sense of why stories are important and why they need to be told.

While I may have not yet become the great American storyteller every writing teacher hopes will emerge from under their tutelage, creative writing taught me how to think creatively in everything that I do, a skill that’s relevant whether you’re developing medical breakthroughs or finding new ways to do business later in life.

Today, schools are often encouraged to teach more ‘practical’ skills, even though more creativity is what we really need in the 21st century to succeed. With schools being shuttered and education budgets slashed dramatically throughout the country, we are now offering less and less opportunities to do so, and the services that independent nonprofit education programs such as 826 National provide become increasingly essential to continue the growth and development that used to be the exclusive domain of our traditional day schools.

Started in San Francisco by the author Dave Eggers, the 826 writing centers across the country offer invaluable services to bridge the gap for students and families by providing one-on-one tutoring, writing workshops and language arts programs for young people – and all at no cost. Read the rest of this entry »