Today I ask my students to answer the question, “What will we lose if we don’t read this essay?”
I need them to engage in worthwhile inquiry and launch into questions that change something about how we understand what it means to be human. I also want them to announce to the rest of us their vital work of changing the world through their unique stories and perspectives.
I want them to see that the essay changes us and that their voice changes us. We write because the reader will lose so much if we don’t. We write because we know we contribute–as no one else can–to the conversations we care about, just by who we are and what we’ve seen and learned so far.
We write because you’ll lose so much if we don’t.