Many Attempts

Our English word "essay" is derived from the French word meaning "attempt."

Michel de Montaigne coined the term. He is considered one of the great essayists of all time. Of his own attempts at discovering an idea through writing, Montaigne says, "Scattering a word here, there another, samples separated from their context, dispersed, without a plan and without promise, I am not bound to make something of them or to adhere to them myself without varying when I please and giving myself up to doubt and uncertainty and my ruling quality, which is ignorance"(1). We who teach writing would do well to remember these words. Success begins with the humility of a child, one who understands his own ignorance. It proceeds with starts and stops, uncertain and sudden changes in direction, and may or may not conclude at all. In once sense, writing never comes to an end, because every essay, novel, or poem could always be reconsidered, reworked, or reinvented.  

Therefore, we teachers must avoid becoming the clerks who know only how to dot the i's and cross the t's. Instead we must become shepherds. The lambs can easily lose their way, but we know how to lead them to green pastures, though through myriad circuitous routes.  

Ultimately, we learn to write by writing. When a teacher creates an atmosphere of joy, the student feels at ease to experiment with just what these words can and cannot do. It requires many attempts for a student to understand that words are like Legos, a million choices and a million ways to build one idea.

1. Michel de Montaigne, Select Essays, "Of Democritus and Heraclitus," 110.