This year, we have introduced a Writing Hour at the Form VI level (11th and 12th grade, conventionally).  This hour is shared by most of the 11th and 12th-grade students at Emmaus, and its purpose is singular: writing.  

And not just any writing.  Academic writing.  By hand. 

There are several reasons for providing this opportunity to students. I will enumerate them here: 

1. These are writing classes.  Therefore, the bulk of the time should not be spent on lectures or discussions.  Those practices have their place, but not a preeminent one in the writing classroom.  The purpose of these classes is for students to practice the art of writing.  This weekly Writing Hour ensures that 50% of their composition class time is dedicated to writing practice. 
2. Students do not have access to technology in our classes. This removes a significant amount of noise or distractions from their writing experience. Apart from Mendelssohn, our focus composer, playing in the background for half the class period, there was total silence. Students were not bullied into this silence.  Sadly, it has become clear that silence is hard to find and even harder to accept in this modern world.  In these moments of writing, it must be faced. 
3. An additional benefit of our students’ lack of access to technology is that they are required to write by hand. Studies indicate that students use more of their brains when writing compared to typing. They are more purposeful in their word choices and structural decision-making.   The potential to reclaim creativity is real.
4. Students have a more accurate sense of time and labor when they are writing in the classroom.  Students are notorious for overestimating the effort and time that they have spent on a specific assignment, particularly focused work like writing.  Students in the Writing Hour are faced with the reality of 50 minutes to complete their writing tasks.  This is what 50 minutes of uninterrupted writing feels like. It is challenging. Attention wanes. Fatigue is real. Intellectual virtue is necessary.  
5. Students have an editor available to them in their peers and their instructor.  I supervise the Writing Hour and also serve as their 11th- and 12th-grade Composition teacher.  There is no excuse for uncertainty about the assignment; I am readily available to assist in any way needed. Where they lack the confidence or humility to come to me for advice or with questions, they have a peer that they can turn to and ask a question of.  No need to turn on the phone, send a text, and invite additional distraction into the writing process. 
6. AI. While not a pressing concern of mine in these particular writing classes, the temptation is removed during our Writing Hours. There is a place for technology within the writing process, but not in this instance. Not in these moments.  Not to the detriment of a student’s creative process and the mental struggle we welcome. 

This past Thursday, it was impressive to witness.  Students paused for long periods, staring off into space.  I was not worried.  They were thinking.  Then they would pick up their pen and write more.  For this one hour, there was simply the coalescence of mind and materials working in tandem to create art. 

Many students would prefer to pursue acedia during that writing hour, though ‘pursue’ may be too strenuous a word.  Still others do not comprehend the purpose of a class period in which a teacher is primarily silent.  And yet we carry on, confident this aligns with our pursuit of excellence in writing, one silent class period at a time.