Anshul Khare

With this article, I am beginning a new series on the topic of writing well. As we start, it’s apt to first make a case for why you should write. In fact, my argument is that everyone should write.

You could argue that we all write hundreds of words every day — WhatsApp messages, Social Media updates, email replies, and sometimes long documents as part of our work. But the purpose of that kind of writing is often to merely inform.

The writing that I am talking about is something that’s intended to be part of a public discourse. Not just to pass on some facts and opinions but to persuade, convince, and debate in public. For this kind of writing has enormous benefits for the writer, even if no one ends up reading the output.

My daughters go to a Montessori school. One of the most unusual things about the Montessori method is their emphasis on having a mixed-age environment. So, unlike a conventional school where children of the same age are grouped together in a class, the Montessori method groups children from adjacent grades together. The idea is to make children of different ages interact and learn from each other through play and participation.

In a Montessori, a 2^nd grade child has the company of children from 1^st grade as well as 3^rd grade in her class. So she not only learns from the 3^rd grader but also teaches a 1^st grader. And a big part of this learning-teaching involves the subtle element of learning through observation.