The Uniformity Problem

The uniqueness of writing stems from the fact that no one has the same approach when it comes to doing so. Our approaches to writing are shaped by our life experiences and upbringings, with no two people sharing the exact same path. Following this premise, we would expect a diverse, wide-ranging literary world to develop as a result of no two people sharing the same approach to writing, but it’s not as simple as this.

Although it is true no two people can share the same exact approach to writing, it is true however, that multiple people can share seemingly similar writing habits, leading to a less innovative and more uniform literary society. For this, I blame the mundane, uber-standardized approach to English education in America we’ve all had to endure.

Some backstory first: for the longest time growing up, I despised writing. I viewed it as a tedious task that I frankly wasn’t so good at. I regarded the activity as a check-boxing routine, where the teacher would lay out the requirements for a given paper, and all I was concerned with was whether my paper included all the necessary elements. This process would start with the teacher laying out the one or two prompts we would use to anchor our paper around. If we were lucky enough to be given the freedom to choose between them, I usually just chose whatever sounded easiest, and many people in the class did the same, unsurprisingly.

 We would then be given the strict parameters. Write x number of pages, with y amount of paragraphs, while incorporating z number of quotes and supporting evidence. With the process being partially thought-out for us, it limited the thinking we needed to do, and turned most of the class into literary zombies. The output of this horde of undead literature was as expected, with half of the class choosing the same thesis statement and recycling through the same quotes.

The problem with this system is not only that it squashes creativity and makes people uninterested but stunts our personal literary developments by teaching a group of people to think similarly, encouraging a lack of effort when it comes to trying to develop one’s unique writing style. This system makes people hate writing, and that’s not good, because to be honest, students haven’t even been able to give it a fair shot given the lack of motivating factors they are given access to.

With this out of the way, I can now begin telling you how I escaped this paradox, and how you can as well.

It started with just one book I read in the summer leading up to my sophomore year of high school.  It was summer reading season, and it was time to play novel roulette with the three books we were tasked with reading over the 90-day span. There was always one book of the three that was focused upon the most when returning to school. Given my disdain for writing, I would predict which book would most likely fit this bill and read just the one while skimming chapter summaries of the other. The book I read that summer was “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini, and this would be the book that pulled me out of wayward ways and showed me that there is hope for someone like me.

The story follows an Afghan boy named Amir through his life from childhood to adulthood while living through Afghanistan’s recently tumultuous history. From the Soviet invasion to the mass exodus of refugees to the takeover of the Taliban, this action-packed novel sucked me in like no other. Maybe it was because of my love of history, or the unexcepted twists and turns the story seemed to take at any moment, or Hosseini’s writing style itself, but something about this book made a huge impact on me. So much so, I frequently found my eyes glued to the pages for hours as I read on my porch’s worn out, sun-bleached chair – my only indication to stop being the shifting angles of the sun’s rays beginning to hit my eyes as twilight approached.

The story just appealed to me, and for the first time, I had experienced the true power of literature. The feelings, emotions, and thoughts that came out of reading that book had a profound impact on me and showed me why people write — and why I should too. Reading The Kite Runner made me reconsider my stance on literature and language as a whole, and it enlightened my willingness to write as a result. I was amazed at how a piece of writing could be so impactful, and for the first time ever, I was actually excited to go back to school to talk about it.

Luckily for me, my gamble had paid off and upon returning to school, The Kite Runner was the one book of all the summer literature our teacher decided to focus on the most, and when it came time to write our essays, something was different this time.

For starters, I was lucky enough to have a great English teacher that year, and with the help of her care, patience, and willingness to work with me, and my newfound motivation and inspiration, I finally had what I needed to get out of my comfort zone as a writer and try something new. I wanted to emulate Hosseini’s writing style and attach meaning to my prose just like he did.

For the first time ever, I had fun writing something and my paper was successful. From this point onward my outlook towards writing would never be the same.

It wasn’t an overnight change, and I still disliked a lot of in-school writing, but every once in a while, an assignment would come up that would pique my interest, and these were the ones I would get really into and truly develop my writing. By the end of my high school career, I had come a long way, and I no longer hated all writing, in fact, I came to like writing about material that carried personal importance for me, looking back on my experiences, I would’ve never thought I’d say those words.

The reason I wrote about this specific topic was to highlight one important attribute of our society. That is, uniformity in education and especially, English education. It’s absurd to expect we all come from the same backgrounds and experiences so it’s absurd to teach us all the same way with the same content. I was lucky that I caught fire reading The Kite Runner, but after talking with my classmates, many didn’t find it as grossing as I did, and maybe, if they could’ve picked something more in line with their interests, that other book could’ve became their inflection point just as The Kite Runner was mine. I still think about what my life would be like had I not read that book.

My advice to anyone who dislikes writing like I did, try to find your The Kite Runner. Seek out literature in line with your interests and give it try, at the very least, it will help you hate writing just a little bit less, and beyond that, you never know what can come out of it.