I’ve been teaching English for years, and lately, I’ve been watching something break. It’s not a slow fade or quiet shift—it feels like a crisis. Writing, the very skill that once formed the backbone of learning and communication, is struggling. And as an English teacher, it terrifies me.
Not because students don’t try. They do. But something deeper is going wrong.
When Words Don’t Work Anymore
I see it every semester: essays that read like a jumble of half-formed thoughts, arguments that don’t convince even the writer, and sentences so awkward they lose all meaning. More and more, I hear students say, “I just don’t know how to start,” or “I don’t have time to write it myself.”
Then there’s ChatGPT and AI tools—these powerful helpers that can write a paper faster than any human. I get why students use them. Life is hard, and writing is hard. But when we let machines do our thinking for us, what happens to our own ability to think?
Why This Matters More Than Ever
This isn’t just about college grades or grammar errors. Writing shapes how we think. It’s how we understand the world and tell our stories. When writing fades, so does our ability to connect, to argue, to care.
Look around. In a world filled with headlines, tweets, and memes, deep thinking often gets drowned out. If writing dies, meaningful conversation dies too. And without that, society loses a little piece of its soul.
What’s Really Going On?
It’s a mess of things:
Our fast-paced digital lives reward quick thoughts, not careful ones.
Schools are stretched thin—too many students, not enough time or resources.
AI can write essays, making it easy to skip the hard work of thinking.
And many students carry heavy loads outside the classroom—jobs, families, anxiety.
It’s no wonder writing struggles.
How We Can Turn This Around
This crisis isn’t a death sentence. It’s a call to action.
Teachers like me need to rethink how we teach. Instead of just grading essays, we need to:
Celebrate the messy process of writing—the drafts, the mistakes, the rewrites.
Help students find topics that matter to them—because writing about what you care about changes everything.
Use technology as a tool, not a cheat—teaching students to question and improve AI’s work, not copy it blindly.
Create spaces where students feel safe to express themselves, to be imperfect, to grow.
The Bright Spots
Even in this crisis, I see hope.
I’ve had students surprise me with ideas I never expected. I’ve watched quiet kids come alive when given the chance to speak or write about what they love. I’ve seen breakthroughs when they realize that writing isn’t a punishment, but a way to find their own voice.
Writing isn’t dying. It’s struggling, yes—but it’s also evolving. And we get to shape how.
Why This Matters to You
You might not be a teacher. You might be a student, a parent, or just someone scrolling through your phone.
But writing touches all of us. It’s how we share our stories, fight for what’s right, and understand each other. If we don’t care about writing now, we risk losing something irreplaceable.
So here’s my wake-up call: Let’s stop treating writing like a chore or a test. Let’s see it as what it really is—a lifeline, a spark, a way to be truly human.
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