Two Classes

South east corner of the Allan Gardens: a piece of guerrilla artwork strapped to a power pole. Someone had removed the little car a while back and someone else affixed a new one.

I've been at my second writing class long enough to be able to draw some comparisons with the first.

The points in common won't surprise anyone: the participants write, share and comment on each other's work. Each class has a facilitator: the person who makes money from convening the class. 

Both facilitators apply a method they learned elsewhere. One teaches in the style learned at Bennington.  The other trained to be an AWA Workshop leader. They are both located near Bloor and Bathurst.

Aside from these superficial points in common, the facilitators could not be more different. Roxanne Snider, who led my first class, is a non-stop talker. It's just as well that no one can get a word in edgewise, because anyone with a different opinion is wrong. 

After someone reads their piece in her class, Roxanne exhaustively critiques it, picks it apart kindly and cruelly and when there is hardly anything left to say, she opens the floor to the rest of the class to comment. Only the very bravest contradicts anything Roxanne has said. 

Roxanne holds her classes in her home which is the kind of place, if you have to use the bathroom, you will wait until you get home.

Roxanne teaches writing, but she herself has not written anything in 25 years. 

Roxanne is a popular teacher. She has many repeat students and holds several workshops a year.

David Bester leads the course I'm in now. He hardly says a thing. He just gives us our "prompts" and tells us how long we have to write. He holds his sessions at 720 Bathurst in the Centre for Social Innovation Annex. We sit in the room named after June Callwood. There are lots of clean washrooms. 

The group, which has whittled itself down to 7 from the original 10, does its writing in class and David writes along with us. He reads his work out, too. 

David actually is a freelance writer. 

The feedback in David's class comes almost entirely from the participants, who are supposed to focus on what stands out for them as they listen to a writer read their work. I find this very difficult. Sometimes someone can read their whole piece and I will not have figured out what it is about. I am thankful that there is one person in the class who is both an avid listener and animated commenter. She takes up a lot of slack for the rest of us.

The differences in the instructors are notable but not significant. I've enjoyed both classes but not the fact that they are held after 7:00 p.m. on weeknights. Due to circumstances beyond my control I am going to miss the next two classes with David. There's just one left after that. And then I think I'll coast for a while and see what life is like without a writing class.

Thanks for reading!

Have great long weekend!

Karen