JOHNNY PARKER – ESCRITOR

THE CRAFT OF TEACHING AND THE CRAFT OF WRITING

Parallels and Paradoxes

Why do we dare refer to teaching and writing as crafts? As a language professional and EFL teacher for over 25 years I still find myself baffled by people using the term “craft” when they talk about teaching. For me, teaching is a science that is backed up by theories, methods, approaches and techniques, as much as psychology or engineering. I get the same reaction when I find references to writing as a “craft”. I am no more than a novice writer and although throughout my career I have produced essays, dissertations and academic papers, I have just recently started to write some fiction, hence, I have also become interested in learning to write from a scientific approach.
It is an endless debate whether you are born a writer or you become one by means of formal education, training and practice. Academics and artists alike will ensure that talent is a condition for someone to be called an artist, in as much as talented teachers seem to have innate qualities that tell them apart from the rest. 
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines craft as “the activity that involves making something in a skillful way by using your hands”, “a job or activity that requires special skill”, “an occupation or trade requiring manual dexterity or artistic skill <the carpenter’s craft> <the craft of writing plays> <crafts such as pottery, carpentry, and sewing>”
If this definition were to be taken literally, every occupation that involves skills and the use of hands should be called a craft, think for example scientists in a lab manipulating substances, or astronauts out in space operating sophisticated computers; but I have never seen Chemistry or Astronomy referred to as “crafts”. 
In a historical sense, the term craft was used to refer to people involved in the production of goods in small scales, also called artisans. Nowadays these people are also called craftsmen or craftswomen, craftspeople to be gender sensitive. So what do teaching and writing have in common so they can be called crafts?
What comes to my mind is a phrase I once came across, probably during one of the many teacher training seminars I have attended. It read something like this: “Anyone knows implicitly how to teach, assuming everyone has undergone formal education and was immersed in a classroom environment at least for some fifteen years.” What I think this person meant is that those of us who have had the chance to attend school can easily tell what characteristics are identifiable in a good teacher or a good lesson, and somehow we have all gained indirect experience as teachers. The same would then apply to writing. Everyone who has had the experience of reading either for pleasure or for specific purposes, subconsciously has acquired knowledge on how to write. The more you read the better a writer you could become.  
Now let’s address the issue of talent. Is an artist, say a musician or a singer born with the condition to develop this skill? Or does one become a musician by studying and training? The same question can be addressed for teachers and writers, or even engineers or doctors. Whether we are born with talent for this or that is debatable. Consider for example the ability to master your mother tongue. For whatever circumstances I was born in Mexico, and I am pretty sure I learned to speak my first words of (Mexican) Spanish at an early age, probably between 12 and 18 months old.  But if I had been born in China, I am sure I would be a fluent speaker of Chinese today, and probably wouldn’t know a word of Spanish. Doctor Sinichi Suzuki developed his talent education program for music based on this principle. Nobody is born with the talent of being a musician. All children have the same chances of becoming musicians if they are given the correct stimuli and the same opportunities for developing this talent. The same can be stated about teaching or writing. Anyone can become a teacher or writer if they are given the opportunities to master “the craft”, which means undergoing formal training and development. 
The final point I want to make is that I am certain that there is as much philosophy and theory behind the science of teaching as there is behind the science of writing. I know for sure we were not born writers but we could become one with perseverance, learning all there is to learn about “the craft”, even if that sounds clichéd. Talented writers have become such with time just as talented teachers. I am sure those who have had more opportunities for formal training and development are way ahead of us.