Analog March 1989 [antikvár]

OPEN LETTER TO A TEACHERStanley SchmidtearDThis probably isn't for you, since you wouldn't do anything like what I'm going to describe. But plea.se read it anyway. Even if you don't see yourself here, maybe you'll recognize a colleague-^and maybe you can get him or her to take a fresh look at what he or she is doing. Some people, after all. do things with the best intentions that they wouldn't do if they'd thought through the consequences.What prompts me to write is a couple of letters I've received in the last few months. One was a cover letter for a story submitted by a high school student (let's call her Anna, though that name is fictitious) who said .she'd started it some time ago, put it aside, and finallyfinished it when the teacher of a creative writing course she was taking assigned "a story," without further specification of theme or content. Anna had not previously found much of interest in this courseall previous assignments had been on quite specific subjects, none of which struck a chord with herand therefore had not put much effort into it or impressed the teacher. Given the chance to pick something that did interest her, she returned to this story, which was something she had created and cared about. Becau.se she cared about it, she worked on it, and produced something far superior to her previous assignments. The relatives and friends she showed it to liked it so much they suggested she try to sell it. Admittedly, friends and relatives are notorious forAnalog Science Fiction!Science Fact