✍️ Let Children Write Badly — And Learn Bravely

A Letter from a Concerned Parent

If your child never struggles, how will they learn to grow?

As a parent, I’ve cheered for my child’s first steps, first words, and first scribbles. I’ve seen their joy in creating something — however messy — all by themselves. But lately, I’ve started wondering: are we letting them grow, or are we quietly stealing that chance away?

We now live in a world where apps can finish their sentences, AI can rewrite their essays, and everything they create can be “perfected” in seconds. But in all this polishing, are we forgetting the real purpose of learning?

When my child writes something awkward or clumsy, I don’t see failure. I see effort. I see learning in action.

But I also see the growing trend in schools — encouraging the use of tools like ChatGPT to help with “productivity” or writing tasks. And I worry.

Are we encouraging understanding or outsourcing it?

What happens when a child never experiences the struggle of turning a thought into a sentence, or finding their own words for a big idea? What do we lose when the process of writing — messy, slow, deeply personal — is skipped?

We risk raising fragile minds that fear getting things wrong and rely too quickly on external help. Instead of thinkers, we get copy-pasters. Instead of writers, we raise prompt-users. Instead of resilient learners, we produce fast-finishers with shallow confidence.

But I don’t want that for my child.

I want them to write badly, bravely, beautifully — in their own voice.

I want them to get stuck, rewrite, rethink, rework.

I want them to discover the joy of realizing, “I didn’t get it at first… but now I do.”

That’s not just education. That’s transformation.

So I’m asking schools and teachers:

Please, don’t fear the mess. Don’t fix too quickly. Don’t hand over creativity to machines.

Let them write. Let them stumble. Let them learn the hard way — because that’s the only real way.

Teach them to be better thinkers, not just faster typers.

👉 Should we be letting AI take over the parts of learning that matter most — or should we protect them fiercely?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Are we helping children grow — or making them dependent too soon?

Let’s talk. Their future is worth it.

A concerned parent