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Thanks Lisa. It's fine balance but erring on the side of decency always produces better writers

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“Decades later they too often apply those same lessons to writing: red ink = bad. Do not do that again. Which, in turn, risks molding a young writer into someone who forsakes creativity into someone whose core skill is avoiding pain” this is such a great analogy and something I think a lot of children of immigrant households can relate to as we’re taught to learn through the lens of perfectionism and getting the highest grades -- so learning with the hope not to fail or get below a A*** versus learning to learn and that really shows up in life! Thank you for writing this!

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I’ve spent several days trying to put my response to this incident into words. Thanks for finding them for me. Teaching, like editing, should be a partnership designed to find the student’s/writer’s best. You don’t do that by sugarcoating and coddling, nor do you do it by browbeating or dismissing.

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