Published: February 1, 1991

Writing Their Wrongs

LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT,'' I SAID. "All four of you want to write stories about child abuse?''

The girls--one with pigtails, three in stone-washed jeans and sweatshirts adorned with "Peanuts'' characters and the Minnesota Twins' World Series logo--nodded in unison. They were part of the 4th grade class that had started writing short stories with me the day before.

"Write about anything,'' I had said on Monday, and when the class brainstormed, the ideas they came up with were the usual assortment of looniness, fantasy, and 9-year-old playground confrontations. Now, on Tuesday, these four girls wanted to write about abuse--and they wanted to do it as a group. Clearly, this was something important to them. I felt a little like Pandora standing before her infamous box. Who was I...