Derek Demmler teaches creative writing at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School in Georgia, one of the top private boarding and day schools in the country. For tapping into better creative writing the challenge was to get students out of warp drive. “Today’s students are always going a hundred miles…actually let’s be honest…all of us are usually going a hundred-miles-an-hour and constantly plugged in and buzzing, if you will, and so the thought was to have a moment of pause in their writing.”
That “pause” involved something creative in order to write creatively: manual typewriters.
As the students’ eyes quietly examined the collection of typewriters, teacher Demmler announced, “Alright. Here you go. Let’s write, but use one of these machines.” The classic typewriters dated from the 1920s to the 1980s.
As you might guess, the reaction was mixed, but they gave it a go - and some students really got into it. Demmler chuckled, “I had one student from eastern Europe who really wanted to ‘steal’ the typewriter and take it home with her. It’s a beautiful typewriter. It’s red and it’s an old Royal portable.”
Unlike smart tech, these writing machines require the user to provide the ‘smarts’
Of course, Demmler uses his laptop all the time for schoolwork, but has a certain fondness for typewriters. “With a laptop you have a safety net of being able to delete, going back and changing immediately and erasing that word. With a typewriter once you commit it to the page, it’s there.” The finality of the ink on the paper means, “you’re committed at that point.” So knowing there’s no delete function means students need to think a little bit more before typing. And that’s the whole point of bringing in typewriters for the creative writing session.
For Demmler, seeing students willing to try something old as something new, “It’s a sense of wonderment and awe. As an educator I’m always feeling this when I have a moment when my students connect. At Rabun Gap we have students from 50 different nations. The class that I did this in had students from the U.S., Africa, the United Kingdom, eastern Europe, and the Caribbean islands – all in one room. The great thing about it, with me, was they’re sitting there and they’re typing and then they make a mistake, and they giggle and they point to each other and say, ‘hey, my typewriter does this,’ and ‘oh, my font looks like this’ and so they’re talking and they’re discovering themselves and laughing and having a good time, but they’re also being deliberate.”
In our full podcast interview below hear about typewritten letters that actually brought tears to some eyes. “They were thinking it and feeling it as they were typing it.” Also. you’ll learn that each typewriter has a unique personality and requires some getting used to.
Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School is a private, coeducational day and boarding school for grades Pre-K through 12. Centrally located between Atlanta, GA, Greenville, SC, and Asheville, NC, we prepare young people for college, career, and a lifetime of leadership and service.