Creative writing and grammar

Last week, Michael Morpurgo warned that the government obsession with improving literacy threatens to “stifle the next generation of story-tellers” (1).

The former children’s laureate and award-winning children’s author believes that instead of talking about “literacy” when it comes to encouraging children to read, to write, to engage in the world of literature across its many mediums and genres, we should talk about “stories, poems, literature, creativity”.

I agree that labelling the wonderful world of words with a formal title can quash enthusiasm and, in Mr Morpurgo’s words, alter a child’s “relationship with language” – and I love his suggestion that there should be 30 minutes at the end of every school day devoted entirely to story-making. I also think it is important to remember that education is about more than creativity, and there are some nuts-and-bolts elements to language, to writing, that must be learned.