This week I’ve been thinking about creative writing classes and teachers, probably because of the announcement of proposed cuts to Victoria’s TAFE (Technical and Further Education) sector and what that will mean for the many writers-to-be out there if the cuts go ahead.
At least two of the five writers short-listed for the Miles Franklin Award last week have been students in community based writing classes. Favel Parrett author of Past the Shallows, had studied writing at Melbourne’s Council Of Adult Education. And Tony Birch, my own mentor and author of Blood, attributes the beginnings of his writing career to the encouragement of his teacher in a night class at Broadmeadows TAFE.
The TAFE sector is close to my heart because my first psychology job was as a TAFE counsellor and then later, it was where I did my first stint teaching writing.
At one college where I worked, the TAFE logo was a pair of hands, one holding a spanner, the other, a rolled up diploma. I loved that logo. It seemed like a perfect image to me about the teaching of writing, and the act of writing itself. The spanner signified the tools, the practical skills you need to do the job. The diploma signified not so much a qualification, but the writing of something that would be read, even published. And the way they were being grasped implied that with determination, both were within reach.
Of course the writing process is not nearly that simple. But there’s something to be said for approaching writing in the same way apprentice plumbers and carpenters approached their trade, or newly arrived migrants approached learning a new language. TAFE was a place where you were encouraged to learn, to let go of your fear of failing, to master a craft through trial and error, patience and application.
There are plenty more people out there who’ve been touched by TAFE and benefitted from the experience – employers, graduates and their families, teachers and whole workplaces. I hope they join the rest of us who are determined to fight the cuts, that they’ll join in letting the Baillieu government know that the proposed cuts will be disastrous – not just for current and future students and staff – but for a government hoping to remain in power.
5 Comments
Hi Gina – As you outline -the process involved in honing the craft of writing is one that needs nurturing in many aspects to flourish – It is an apprenticeship that Tafe fostered – I really hope these cuts can be challenged – Really nicely conveyed by you – All the very best from NZ !! Michele
I too benefited from my first apprenticeship in writing at The CAE under the auspices of the wonderful Janey Runci and many others besides. I hope these cuts don’t go ahead. Good on you for railing against them.
Hi Elisabeth
Yes the CAE certainly developed a reputation as a great environment for writers – and for readers too.
I feel very lucky that I studied Professional Writing at TAFE when I did – as it has been cut back so much over the last 5 years. The creative subjects are always the first to go when there are cuts and it’s so short-sighted. Those subjects were the most important for me and for my novel, Past the Shallows. I had wonderful teachers, and loved the fact that at TAFE there is a huge diversity of students – from 20 years old to 90 and from all walks of life.
Hi Favel
I think that diversity of students is what made workshopping or trialling your writing on a class so valuable. Sharing your work with such a cross-section of readers, all of them passionate about writing, was a great test – of the writing and the author!