Children's Stories

We will write children's stories to celebrate, to teach, to enjoy. Think about the children sitting in the classroom, bedroom, or library bored because they have yet found a book that excites or moves them. Let's write for them using colorful words and rich language. Help them smile, laugh, feel warm and silly, or get lost in their imaginations. We can also write to empathize with them and show them we care about their young pains. 



My children's story was inspired by three things, my seven-year-old son, an academic competition that took place almost three decades ago, and the preamble from a piece of text. 

Thirty three years ago as a student at Doolittle East Elementary, I was training for an academic competition in the Chicago Public Schools district 11. We had to compete against the math and science powerhouses in our district. Our coach, Mrs. W., told us that we could not afford to come in second. We had to be the best, and we were. We crushed the competition. Although others were surprised, we were not. 

Often times, people confuse striving for the best as conceit or arrogance. It was just our way of thinking. The members of that academic team have gone on to serve society. My main man, DRD, now works for the federal government in Washington, D.C. after earning a law degree.

Why strive for the best? I read a preamble that contained the following words:

We live in a world where millions die from easily preventable diseases… and still more face hunger as a daily fact of life. We are locked inside a worldwide economic system that dispenses crumbs and extends privileges to a relatively small number, while forcing billions to seek desperately for work that more often than not numbs the mind, crushes the spirit and destroys the body.... We walk through our days in a world where the lives of countless children are ground up and destroyed...as victims of poverty and humiliation...their potential crushed, or their lives cut short.


I WANT TO BE...

by

Alfred W. Tatum
July 26, 2009

I want to be 
the fastest

I want to be
the smartest

I want to be
the strongest

I want to be
the coolest

I want to be
the richest

I want to be
the happiest

I want to be 
the healthiest

I want to be
the nicest

I want to be 
the sharpest

I want to be
the neatest

I want to be
the proudest

I want to be the 
the worldliest

I want to be 
the awesome-est

I want to be 
the best

person ever. 

My seven-year-old loved it. He added the line, I want to be the awesome-est. 

Let's not be apologetic for what we want for the next generation. 

Beauty

Beauty
Dr. Alfred W. Tatum
February 4. 2014
5:54pm


There's something sad about beauty.

It fades when an uninvited competitor appears.

Beauty is more robust when it is alone.

Among a crowd, not so much

unless there is an unrelenting eye that requires its presence to endure.

Let's Open the Floodgates

Welcome to the UIC Reading Clinic! It's time to open the floodgates as writers to define yourself, engage others, nurture resilience, and build capacity. We will write for others and ourselves during our time together. I wrote the following poem to capture what it means to be a floodgate writer.

Floodgate Writer

Alfred W. Tatum

February 1, 2012

5:38pm

Gushing, rushing waters

Is what my words feel like

The dam builders are in the way

I will use the 13 letters I know to tear down the walls

CAPITAL LETTERS, small letters, misspellings, no commas

two periods and an exclamation point

I don’t care

Pictures, sketches, scribbles

and an occasional stain from my snack

I have to write

to figure some stuff out, to scream,

to scratch my back, to touch my toes

to get that booger out of my nose

My stream of thoughts is pounding against my head

pencils – where are the pencils!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excitement, fears, no cowardice tears

Open the floodgates and let me through

I feel another thought coming

signed

FW

Poems by UICRC Student Authors

Children's Stories by UICRC Student Authors

Short Stories by UICRC Student Authors

Informational Pieces by UICRC Student Authors