Writing as punishment.

Writing as punishment? While you might have heard the phrase, “throw the book at him!” in a police show, what seems to be worse punishment is if they ask you to write words from that book.

That’s what I had to do. Hand write a page from the big, thick dictionary if I forgot to bring my gym clothes to the gym class.

Writing as punishment is not uncommon. It’s essentially a meme.

Most of us have seen the opening of the Simpsons where Bart writes, “I will not (Bart’s violation of the week goes here) over and over on the chalkboard as punishment.

If you ever wondered why people hate writing, ironically, where you go to learn it (school) might be to blame.

When school leaders make you write as punishment, it sub-communicates that words are not something you should love and welcome. Instead, they are meant to be vessels and instruments of pain. Something you endure. As human beings, we don’t like things that cause pain. We also dislike things that we associate with punishment.

What if schools continue to teach that lesson about words? Like being abused, how do you expect children to behave when they grow up? And if you hate to write words. You also are less likely to want to read them.

And people wonder why people have to read and write.