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Letter to My Father: Using Associative Creative Writing to Encourage Assimilative
Behavioral Change in the Classroom

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you." – Maya Angelo

How many times have you heard a child say, “I don’t know?” Teachers, guidance counselors,
school administrators, and parents must hear this statement hundreds of times a year. What they
probably find completely frustrating about this empty comment is that children “DO KNOW,” they just
don’t understand how to assimilate this knowledge into words and their relationship to these words into
positive behavioral practice. Letter to My Father encourages change through exploration, self-discovery,
and creativity.

Working with a team of educators (an elementary school principal, guidance counselor, middle
school teacher, city librarian, and student teacher) we have developed a tri-part curriculum based on tri-
state curriculum requirements. The Letter to My Father for Elementary Level Students, Letter to My
Father for Middle School Students, and Letter to My Father for High School student curriculums provide
teachers with a workbook/workbook pages (for grades 3-5) to assist with the final written assignment.
A creative literary program, this curriculum purpose is to help students recognize and acknowledge the
connection between their social and economic condition and their classroom performance and
behavior. This curriculum uses one of the strongest influences on adolescent identification, the paternal
relationship (which has been proven by hundreds of articles and books to be the cornerstone influence
on our emotions and lifestyle patterning), to discover hidden factors which affect student behavioral
decision-making.

Clearly our public schools are under attack by social and economic factors which increase the
possibility of violence in the classroom.

Dr. Sandra Bloom, Drexel University School of Public Health, submits that children often behave
violently in the classroom because of “outside the classroom forces” or toxic stress. Recent research
shows that Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACES, correlate with long-term physical and behavioral
health issues. This stress in effect cripples students emotionally and educationally. Our curriculum, the
powerful use of organized letter writing, helps that reparation. The benefit of connecting inappropriate
behavior with the relationship or lack of paternal relationship is a unique experience in social
personalization. Students are given a chance to view their relationship with father in a safe, creative
environment increasing the effectiveness of the program. In addition, the intimate writing style of the
handwritten letter helps to relax students and aids them in the discovery of internal issues which block
educational, emotional, and physical success. The curriculum has been created for students from 3rd to
12th grade and covers six skill areas: research, reading, creative writing, media arts, group dynamics and
creative thinking.

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