In teaching middle school writing, I’ve observed that so-called “creative writing” techniques get in the way of clear communication.

Elementary students are encouraged to use metaphor, descriptions of sensory experiences, and colorful adverbs and adjectives.

The result is that, by the time they get to middle school, half of the students are submitting work that is florid and overwrought.

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Awhile back, the parent of a student at my school learned some concerning information about another student.

She had this information because her daughter had shared it with her. She sat on it for weeks, hoping that another parent would come forward with it so that she wouldn’t have to.

Eventually, this parent, Amy, got in touch to pass this information along to me. But why was Amy contacting me and not the parent of the other student?

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Once, I came back to my business location after several weeks away only to find a giant, dead tree.

I had a great team running things. And yet, when I walked up to the building, the first thing I saw was that the eighty-foot oak tree next to the front steps had brown leaves in the middle of summer.

Everything else was green. The dead tree was hard to miss. But no one else had seen it. Or if they had, they hadn't said anything about it.

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You may have heard that a University of Georgia professor resigned on the spot when one of his students refused to wear a mask properly.

The professor, Irwin Bernstein, was a “retiree-rehire,” who had officially retired in 2011 but has been teaching on a part-time basis.

I can’t blame him for deciding, at 88 years old, that life is too short to argue with an undergraduate about masks. And I certainly can’t blame him for attempting to enforce a mask mandate in his classroom due to the ongoing threat of death.

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Many of us are used to rules and accept them without question.

For some of us, they make us feel safe and comfortable, like someone’s in charge.

For others, they are begging to be tested, contested, rebelled against, bent, and broken.

Each of these tendencies are valuable and necessary. A society in which everyone is constantly questioning the rules has no peace and stability. On the other hand, a society in which everyone always follows the rules, no matter what they are, veers toward totalitarianism.

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