Self- Esteem and Creativity

The idea for the following brief story came to me after reading Stephen King’s book, “On Writing: a memoir of the craft”.  I woke up dreaming about it.   

Photo by Mike Landry

Punishment.

It is recess time at Dawnville Elementary.  Children are playfully running and laughing.  Over near the entrance door a tall thin boy with unkempt shoulder length hair stands alone facing the “punishment wall”.  His name is Justin and this is part of a daily routine after being caught hitting one of his classmates. 

Justice.

Several days later, with two feet of snow on the ground and frigid temperatures, recess is indoors.  The classroom is humming with conversation as children pull games and puzzles from an “activity box” and then spread out around the room.  

Justin is standing by himself staring out the window at the snow covered trees

Alan sneaks up behind him and punches him in the back.   Justin’s body lurches toward the window.  Like a lightweight fighter, Justin steadies his feet and pivots away from the window with both fists raised.  Facing Alan he pulls his right arm back…

“Stop,” Mrs. “G” yells. 

Justin freezes in position.

“Alan, hitting is not allowed,” she says.

Justin drops his arms and stands straight. 

Both boys look stunned.

“Alan, go to your desk and put your head down.”

“But, he…”

“Alan, I saw what you did and how it happened.  Go to your desk, now.” Alan does as he’s told.

“Are you OK, Justin?”

“Yes.”

“Great!”

Relieved, Justin heads to the “activity box” and finds a game he can play on his own, then moves to a spot where he can sit by himself. 

Creative Expression.

Photo by Mike Landry

Later that day Justin is sitting at a round table at the back of the class with four other children and his Remedial Reading teacher, Mrs. “G”.  He thinks to himself:  I’m stupid and I’m always going to be stupid. 

Mrs. “G” hands each of them a piece of wide ruled paper and a pencil.   After reviewing basic sentence structure the group is asked to write a sentence.  “It can be about anything. If you’d like, it can be about a place you’ve gone with someone and had fun.” 

Justin’s hand hits the table hard with a thud as he moves the paper closer. Pressing down hard, he writes, “I do not want to do this.” Mrs. “G” quickly writes a big letter “A” next to his sentence.  “Good job, Justin, you wrote a sentence.”

Almost in tears, Justin looks at her and says, “My father is out of work.  He drinks a lot and sleeps a lot.  We don’t go anywhere or do anything fun.” 

 “Justin, if you could do anything for fun, what would you do?”

“I’d go fishing with my dad.”

Handing Justin a fresh piece of paper Mrs. “G” says, “Then write about that if you’d like.”

Justin quickly wrote down a sentence about fishing with his dad.

After four more “Good Jobs”,  Mrs. “G” moved on to the next part of the lesson where she encouraged each child to expand upon their sentence.

 All five were busy writing when Justin asked if he could draw some pictures about his fishing trip. 

“That is a great idea, Justin!  Does anyone else want some drawing paper and crayons?” Everyone was in.

Their words turned into paragraphs with each adding pictures to go with their soon to be short story books.  

How about you?

Is there a Justin in you?  A part of you that longs to be loved and accepted for who you are;  that yearns to be set free?   If you could do anything just for the fun of it, what would it be?   Be creative. 

I’d enjoy hearing from you.  Share your artistic expression below.  

Resourses:  

"Calling Forth New Life" - Kirk Byron Jones

 “On Writing: a memoir of the craft” - Stephen King