Australian academic, Roslyn Arnold, asserts that education for the best and fullest human consciousness requires that we understand and respect the inner worlds of individuals, in which thought and feeling are complementary processes. She also contends that it is equally important to understand how individuals interact with each other, and how they derive significance from such interactions. This rich world of interpersonal life between people and the equally rich inner life enjoyed by those of a reflective nature, are the foundations for deep and meaningful learning.

The act of writing, being a medium for thinking and making sense of experience, is an ideal vehicle to promote the development of a rich interpersonal life and a reflective disposition. When we write, we write our way into meaning, discovering new ideas and generating insights that would otherwise remain unrealised or hidden. Thinking and understanding are activated by writing creatively and analytically.

American writer, Terry Tempest Williams, effectively captures the essence and the power of writing in the following extract:

‘I write to make peace with the things I cannot control. I write to create red in a world that often appears black and white. I write to discover. I write to uncover. I write to meet my ghosts. I write to begin a dialogue. I write to imagine things differently and in imagining things differently perhaps the world will change. I write to honour beauty. I write to correspond with my friends. I write as a daily act of improvisation. I write because it creates my composure. I write against power and for democracy. I write myself out of my nightmares and into my dreams. I write in a solitude born out of community. I write to the questions that shatter my sleep. I write to the answers that keep me complacent. I write to remember. I write to forget….

I write because you can play on the page like a child left alone in sand. I write because it belongs to the force of the moon: high tide, low tide. I write because it is the way I take long walks. I write as a bow to wilderness. I write because I believe it can create a path in darkness. I write out of my inconsistencies. I write because then I do not have to speak. I write with the colours of memory. I write as a witness to what I have seen. I write as a witness to what I imagine. I write because it is dangerous, a bloody risk, like love, to form the words, to say the words, to touch the source, to be touched, to reveal how vulnerable we are, how transient we are. I write as though I am whispering in the ear of the one I love.’

Mrs Clare Murphy

English Coordinator & Literacy Instructional Coach