Judge not...lest ye be judged

I attended Timothy Christian School, a small country school near Wellsburg, for 9 years (K-8). It was here that I first began my writing career. Each year we had what was then called "interscholastics" - a competition between various other Christian schools in different fine arts categories such as writing (essays, short stories, poetry), vocal performance, instrumental performance, drama, speech, and art. It was in these competitions that I got my first compliments and encouragement for my writing. One of my self-composed speeches was published when I was in junior high. A starting point.

A few weeks ago, my Mom, who is a teacher at my Almamater, asked me if I would consider being the creative writing judge for their now in-house fine arts fair. I agreed, thinking it would be fun and entertaining.

So when Mom dropped off a shoe box filled with evaluation forms and pieces by students (grades 3-8), I was eager to begin my judicious duties. I decided the best way to start would be to just read through the entire set. And that's what I did. Some of the pieces are very good and I can tell the author put forth a lot of effort. Others are pretty evident that it was just an assignment - nothing he or she really wanted to do. Some of them made me laugh out loud. Others made me question the emotional health of the child. It is entertaining and interesting and fun. But it is extremely challenging. After my reading, I went through all the evaluation sheets and gave each kid's essay, short story and poem an individual score.

And then I did something that was probably a bit of a mistake - or perhaps my mistake was that I waited till the end to do this. I pictured these kids seeing their scores. I pictured them looking beyond the color of the ribbon hanging on their work and seeing a number. So many points out of so many points. I pictured the ones who got low marks - the ones who actually tried really hard and got low marks - crying. And then I pictured their parents trying to figure out just who was the moron who gave their kid a low score. If it was just a ribbon color and some positive/helpful comments from the judge, I don't think it would be as...um...terrifying as what I feel it is now.

I tried to balance out the low scores with some encouragement on their evaluation sheets. I tried to give some constructive tools for them to use in the future. I tried to make them feel like just because this effort flopped, they should not give up. Truth be told, I have had a few flops myself - but not in competition. There were a few pieces I wrote in my college writing classes that got good grades but were not my best. But I was never the kid who saw the white ribbon hanging on her piece of creative writing. I don't think I ever even got a red ribbon. All of mine were blue. Writing is just in me. Its easy. I've now seen the other side of the coin - the kids who try so hard but just can't tell a story, or argue a point convincingly or make pictures with their words. And because storytelling is so much a part of my life, my heart breaks for the ones who try and get a low score from me - the knowitall.