Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

The Writing Portfolio:
Creating a New Responsibility
for the Word
by
Linda Sawers
Rudolf Steiner tells us about the critical effect of language on young
children.
He urges us all as teachers and parents to understand the relationship
between the use of beautifully crafted language and speech during the
day and the child’s ability to receive the presence of the spiritual world
during sleep at night. The deprivation of communication between the
child and the world of the spirit results in difficulties in learning and a
feeling for life. Steiner’s insights give us a clue to understand why our high
school students struggle with the world of the “Word” in present times.
New strategies for reading, speaking, and writing must be developed for a
generation that has been largely separated from the solace and encouragement
of the spiritual world through the abasement of language. Still, adolescents
long for the truth which can be revealed through language. Writing
regenerates and invigorates the use of the word in our students, and we can
use various approaches to awaken the power of the word in them. As they
explore their own expressive and distinctive styles, a new voice and a new
appreciation for the word develops. Creating a portfolio of writing over a
period of time, including multiple revisions, brings to consciousness the
living quality of each word and why each word must be chosen carefully.
An exploration of writing in our own voice needs to be coupled
with an ability to look objectively at what has happened to language, particularly
vocabulary, in the last century. We need to understand that the
undermining of our own ability to think and create in words is the result of
the general reduction of the average vocabulary. A hundred years ago students
had a vocabulary approximately twice the size of students today. Our
tendency to use the same general words to describe many things results in
limited choices when we have something important and precise to say. C.S.
Lewis points to this “dyslogistic abyss” in his fine essay “The Death of
Words.” He observes that the death of words begins with the adjectival
parasites “real” and “true.” We can observe adverbial parasites as well. Once
these “parasites” are applied to what was once a perfectly precise word, we
know the meaning of the word has lost power and is dying. (You may note
the word “precise” is on its way to the burial ground!) Statements such as
“He is a real friend” or “He is a true friend” diminishes the meaning of
“friend” and the adjectives “real” and “true.” Other words gone to the abyss
are “unique,” “significant,” and “tremendous.” These words have lost the
power to stand alone. Lewis tells all of us who love language and under-
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