Writing for Children: Teach Don’t Preach
“Teach don’t Preach” and “Show don’t Tell” are often used interchangeably but they’re actually not the same thing… Teach don’t Preach is to children’s writing, nonfiction, inspirational, and poetry, as Show don’t Tell is to creating action flow in fiction and short stories. Since Show don’t Tell is a much easier thing to explain we’ll start with it. Instead of having a character or set of characters suddenly come to be at a certain point in a story. You should show in active terms of what actions it took for them to come to that point.
Ex: Telling: Neither girl would let go of the book, until the librarian, Miss Snoktkell caught them fight over it�.
Showing: As the girls wrestled with the last copy of The Copper Penny, their struggle continued to escalate to where both girls had dropped their other notebooks, backpacks, and purses unheeded on the floor so they could concentrate more attention on capturing the prized book for themselves. Hearing the sounds of insults being traded in louder and louder voices, books dropping, and the general noise of scuffling, it wasn’t long before Miss. Snotkell came bustling round the corner to investigate what was happening in her previously quiet paradise. Not believing her eyes, she came to an abrupt halt to temporary struck speechless at the horror of the sight of the girls abusing one of her precious books.
A bit more work perhaps but a much more memorable (not to mention less boring) scene.
Teach don’t Preach is a trap much harder for we as writers to avoid. Each time I see this rule I imagine myself as a child in church. Remembering the minister delivering his sermon at the top of his more than adequate voice, only stopping to pound a point home by smacking his bible on the pulpit with resounding force. As I child, I was never sure if the bible thump was to really make a point stand out in the sermon or to wake the napping congregation so they would startle with a red face guilty look and begin to pay attention again for a few minutes before dozing off again. I don’t think half the men in the congregation could even tell you want that Sundays sermon was about.
The point I’m making here is with all the theatrics and bible pounding a large percentage of his congregation went away never having heard the message he had researched, studied, practiced, and delivered with such might. He was so intent on delivering his message he had forgotten that if he wanted his congregation to actually know what the message was; he needed to teach them not pound them over the head with it. The man I learned the most from was a very genial mild manner minister that I never saw raise his voice in anger, pound on his bible, or even speak in more than a loud enough voice to carry throughout his small congregation.
I went every summer in anticipation to the week at Camp Joy where “Uncle Pete” and his wife would fill our heads and hearts with the joy of learning about Jesus, God, and the many stories of Jesus, the disciples, and people who where as ordinary as we were, who grew great in their faith of God. He didn’t preach that we must never sin, we must repent, or even that we must believe or we would go to hell, (directly to hell, don’t pass go, don’t collect 200 dollars) as some preachers profess. He TAUGHT us why it was important to love one another. His stories from the bible held us enthralled while the values, morals, and lessons crept into our hearts to stay with us the rest of our adult lives. I learned in one week during those summers through the stories, games, crafts, and fellowship more than I have ever learned in such a short period of time than at any other time in my life.
