Sticks & Stones

How to write on the subject Teach in a mere 150 words? The answer is it’s almost impossible, but no one said flash fiction with tight deadlines and a strict word count would be easy. Here’s my take on this particular prompt…

There are some things which can’t be taught.

You can teach a child to add and subtract and how numbers create patterns and algorithms that help us understand our world.

You can teach a child how letters form words and words form sentences. How sentences grow into paragraphs, and sometimes, paragraphs into entire stories in which you can immerse yourself, lost for hours on end in the jungle, under the sea, fighting monsters or falling in love.

You can teach them how words can rhyme, how they can hurt…or heal. How the pen is mightier than the sword and how to fight and win their battles with words alone. You can teach them that words instruct, are persuasive, how they can flatter and scorn.

You can teach them all of these things. What you can never teach them is to love words. That has to happen all on its own.