VOA慢速英语2011--Program Helps Students Express Themselves with Creative Writing（在线收听）

Education Report - Program Helps Students Express Themselves with Creative Writing

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

For almost ten years an organization called Eight Twenty Six has been helping students in the United States become better writers by using their creativity. American writer Dave Eggars and educator Nínive Calegari created the organization in San Francisco.

The program has become so successful that it is now in seven more American cities. This literary arts program can do things that many public schools cannot.

In the middle of a mostly Latino area, the address Eight Twenty Six Valencia is a fun place for students and visitors. A store that sells pirate supplies is located there.

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Leigh Lehman is the head of the program. She says going through a store for pirates before they reach the program area makes students start to think creatively.

LEIGH LEHMAN: “This is not school; this is not a tutoring center. This is a place for me to be myself and to find my voice and find my creativity and excel.”

The goal of Eight Twenty Six Valencia is to help public school students between six and eighteen years old write creatively.
　

Students write at desks at one of the eight 826 stores.

During the day, classes come to the program and volunteers help with writing projects. After school, students come for help with their school work and creative writing. Many of the children here are from immigrant families.

LEIGH LEHMAN: “A lot of the parents don’t speak English as a first language so it’s harder for them to help their children with school work. So we’re trying to provide the services that parents wouldn’t otherwise be able to offer their kids for free.”

The program now serves thirty thousand students in eight American cities.

Each city has a different theme – from a store for pirates in San Francisco to a store for spies in Chicago.

The program’s National Chief Executive is Gerald Richards. He says reduced school budgets mean less money for arts education in the public schools. As that goes away, he says, so does the ability for students to use their imagination.

GERALD RICHARDS: “I think there is much more of a focus on science, technology, engineering and math. There’s a lot of a focus on testing and a lot of the teaching that’s going on in the schools is focusing on the test and passing the test rather than thinking about how do we get kids to think. How do we get them to reason.”

Mister Richards says being creative and thinking up new ideas are important even in the sciences. He says knowing how to write well will help students get to college and beyond.

GERALD RICHARDS: “For jobs and employers and just every subject is the ability to communicate well really does open a lot of doors.”

Leigh Lehman, in San Francisco, says Eight Twenty Six builds students’ confidence by publishing and selling their work at places like the pirate supply store and on the Internet.

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That is Sofia Marquez reading her story. She is proud that it is now in a book.

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Leigh Lehman says…

LEIGH LEHMAN: “That verification that their voice matters and that their stories matter and that their experiences are valid and important and relevant to other people.”

Sofia Marquez says…

SOFIA MARQUEZ: “I get to use my imagination - that’s why I like writing.”

Last year, Eight Twenty Six programs across the country published nine hundred forty-four volumes of student writing.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report. I’m Christopher Cruise.
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Contributing: Elizabeth Lee