We need more classes like creative writing

By Kenzie Raub '24

Students and teachers are expressing their desire for a creative writing class for the entire school.
“It provides another avenue for creativity,” says Via Dancea, ‘25. “Like, the same way we have art class and graphic design and stuff. Creative writing could help make that even more accessible to people with different passions.”
Creative writing is offered as a class in the middle school, and was going to be a class in the upper school, but was canceled due to not having enough students signing up for it. However, that leaves a large question unanswered: what about the students who did sign up? Their passion for writing hasn’t died just because the class was taken away. A class like this has been anticipated by many, especially since the school was so close to having it once. This feeling is shared not only by students, but by teachers as well, and there are many exceptional candidates to teach this class.
“That’s the beauty of North Cross,” says Josh Kier, the English 10 teacher. “We have so many talented teachers. I think, off the top of my head, Dr. Naginey would be an astounding teacher for a creative writing class.”
A big part of being a good fit for a creative writing teacher is being encouraging to students, being fascinated by the direction their students go, and being passionate to always keep learning. All of these fit the description of why Kier sees Naginey as a good option for teaching the class, along with English teacher and theater director Polly Jones, French teacher Chris Brandon and Spanish teacher Rachell Phillips.
“I think it would help make people think in stories,” says Phoebe Anderson, ‘22. “Which is good because it helps people understand each other because, you know, everybody has a story, and if you’re thinking of making your own stories, you understand what people think and how they think.”
Creative writing opens up an entirely new type of writing compared to the analytical type of writing that is taught in regular English classes. It has a lot more expression in it, and it doesn’t require you to have to write based off of another work. The class could teach students about how to form characters and delve deeper into how the human mind works. It also allows students to find an escape, letting out their inner feelings and thoughts through descriptive writing and turn it into something beautifully relatable for others.
“Creative writing, it’s such a self-discovery process that you can’t control,” says Kier. “If a teacher claims that they can control it, they’re lying, or they’ve fooled themselves. Bearing witness to that in an individual is, like, really intimate and cool and fun.