Surviving 9th Grade

Tonight, I was re-reading a favorite book, On Writing Well by William Zinsser, while trying to find a way to teach students to write. I was reminded, though, that their writing, and my writing, is only as good as the thinking behind it. As Zinsser says,

"How can the rest of us [those without the last name Thoreau] achieve such enviable freedom from clutter? The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can't exist without the other."

Why can't my students write clearly? Because they can't think clearly. Why are my sentences so often muddled? Because I'm being distracted on all sides by teenagers yapping, bells ringing, emails arriving, blogs updating, and phones ringing.

With all those distractions, it's a wonder that Americans can walk straight or sleep at night, much less think clearly. The problem with thinking clearly is that it takes time. Unless I take time to think clearly, I will have muddled thoughts and likely live a rather muddled life (in case you can't tell, I'm really loving the word "muddled" today).

Plus, I'm apparently likely to be less healthy, less wealthy, and less happy, because my problem isn't the lack of time to think. I have plenty of time, as Josh often reminds me. In fact I have all the time in the world. I just procrastinate too much.

My personal mission for this year is simply to discover what I could accomplish if I procrastinated less. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to measure my time procrastinating or my success, but I maybe I won't need to measure in the end - I'll probably find that I'm more healthy, more wealthy, more happy, and, I hope, less muddled.