"What are those doughnuts for?" a student asked me today during class. He had spotted a see-through grocery bag containing a dozen Krispy Kremes behind my desk.
"They're for Writing Club," I told him.
"What's that?" he wanted to know.
And so I gave him a brief overview of the group. "Um, it's a club where kids who like to write come and write and share their writing."
"Can anyone come?" he asked.
I was pretty sure it was the doughnuts talking, since this particular student is a rather reluctant writer, but I told him that anyone was welcome, and secretly, in my writer's heart of hearts, I hoped he would come and that it would make a difference.
"I'm coming!" he said.
"Then I will see you there!" I answered, and upon returning to the lesson, promptly forgot the entire conversation.
Flash forward to 2:30 when, to my surprise, that guy and his equally non-writing buddy actually showed up for our meeting. I was glad, but the regular attendees looked upon these new recruits with doubt. They were classmates, but they were from very different social groups, and while you can't choose the kids in your class, the regulars liked writing club partially because it was a self-selected group of people with a like interest.
"You have to write, you know," one of the old timers informed the new boys.
They shrugged.
"They're just here for the snack," the first kid said, shaking his head in dismay.
Fortunately, there were notebooks and pens and yes, doughnuts, to distract and unify everyone. Our plan was to go outside and do some writing, and that is what we did. We found a pleasant spot, wrote for five minutes, and then moved to another location. There was plenty of chatter and play along the way, and everyone got some writing done.
At the end of the hour, as we headed back into the building, I found myself walking beside Mr. Skeptical. "That was fun," he said. "Those guys can be annoying in class, but they were all right today. I'm glad they came."
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