| Writing Teachers Grapple With Violent Student Work
WSJ April 21,22 2007
SALON-APRIL 20
How should creative-writing teachers deal with students who turn in grisly stories?
The long trail of disturbing, violent writings left by Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui has sparked a debate about how to handle students' gruesome prose. Some professors have complained that school officials are slow to respond. Others worry they aren't equipped to determine which students are pushing creative boundaries and which have real psychological problems.
"Lots of great literary works are deep and dark and disturbing -- that would be Kafka," Deborah Landau, a poet and director of the creative-writing program at New York University, tells Sarah Elizabeth Richards. Ms. Landau, who plans to discuss university protocols with her staff, says teachers need to worry when students' behavior, and not only their writing, turns alarming.
We can list over 100 possibilities that could have prevented the fatal tragedy but it would not be possible for any school and its officials to incorporate all the safety procedure at all times. |