Is it really that hard to write it out?

LOLITA HARPER

I wish I could just “two-way” this to you from my mobile phone.

Instead, I must sit down and write out words in their entirety,

forgoing the use of common tech-speak such as, “gr8,” “jk,” “btw” and

“LOL.” (Why is that always written in all caps anyways?)

What? You don’t know what the heck I am talking about? You must be

of that generation that spelled things out. That more mature

generation that grew up reading books, writing letters and learning

grammatical sentence structure in school. Ah, the good old days.

(For future reference, the above terms are short for “great,”

“just kidding,” “by the way” and “laugh out loud.”)

Well, I would imagine they were. I’m not that old yet. I had to

check my age on Wednesday, though, because the words that were coming

out of my mouth made me sound like a grandparent. “Kids these days,”

I said. “They’re just too lazy to write anymore.”

I said that while judging the poster and communication contest at

the Southern California Auto Club here in Costa Mesa. The contest

asked students from 13 counties in Southern California to illustrate,

write or otherwise communicate concepts of traffic safety such as

seat-belts, drunken driving and road racing. The poster contest was

open to those in elementary school and junior high school, and high

school students were asked for entries in the form of 500-word

essays, a videotape or a hand-drawn or graphic arts poster.

The Auto Club received no essay entries. Zero. Not one from any

teen in all of Southern California.

I was shocked and saddened, and then I uttered those words.

“Kids these days ... .”

I turned to my fellow judge, Tom Morrow, a columnist at the North

County Times in San Diego County, and asked him if I was crazy. He

doesn’t know me well enough, so he said, “No,” and then added this:

“Well, of course, there are no essay entries. That would mean

work.”

Auto Club spokesman Bud Wampler was a little more generous with

today’s youth.

“Kids just don’t have a feel for that,” he said.

I wondered if this were true. Thinking back to my high school

days, I was the only person in class who lobbied the teacher for

essay questions. And even to this day, people my age or younger

marvel that I write for a living.

“Dude, I hate writing,” said Stephen Lugo, my 19-year-old boxing

compadre. “How do you do it everyday? You’re crazy.”

Phil D’Agostino, an Advance Placement history teacher at Newport

Harbor High School, said even his students, who are the brightest of

the bright, absolutely do not like to write.

“My students are expected to write on a regular basis, at least

two times a week, but even then it is like pulling teeth,” D’Agostino

said.

Writing requires people to actually sit down and take time out of

their busy days. People in general, but especially those in the MTV

generation, are constantly bombarded with ideas and thoughts that are

handed to them on the Internet, TV or other forms of mass media.

“Critical thinking skills are just really time consuming for

people, maybe too time consuming,” D’Agostino said.

It might be a hobby that people must grow into, he said. As one

matures, gets married and has children, they start to look at things

more seriously and deliberately. Writing is also very serious and

deliberative, and the patience to enjoy it may just come with age.

“I was averse to writing,” he said. “I used to be just like them

... but you grow into it. You get to a point in your life where you

do slow down.”

Columnist and former UC Irvine English professor Joseph Bell said

writing used to be a task that was enjoyed by his peers regardless of

age or marital status.

“It was that wonderful period of time when that was the way we

communicated,” Bell said.

But as time passed, all that changed. It got to the point where he

noticed that his students had a “constant inability to communicate

themselves clearly in writing.” What made it worse was that any teen

who did show a glimmer of excitement for the art of the written word

seemed to be encouraged by his or her high school teachers to

overwrite; writing in a repetitive, academic format that encourages

big words and small content.

“I was constantly dealing with young people who thought they were

writing the world’s greatest novel, and I didn’t know what they were

saying because they couldn’t express themselves directly and simply,”

Bell said.

Be it age or maturity, one thing is certain: writing was much more

prevalent before the instant gratification of MP3s, the World Wide

Web, 300-channel cable boxes, cell phones and Palm Pilots, D’Agostino

pointed out.

“There are so many other things that occupy their time, it’s no

wonder they don’t have time to write,” D’Agostino said.

Which reminds me, it’s about time for me to jet.

Btw, if any high school student would like to tell me why writing

is considered a fate worse than death, you can hit me up at the

e-mail address listed below. Gotta run, cya soon.

* LOLITA HARPER is the community forum editor. She also writes

columns Wednesdays and Fridays. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275

or by e-mail at [email protected].