Parents may be challenged by their child’s homework frustration—“Why do I have to do these writing assignments? I don’t like to write! I’ll never be a writer, so why do I need to learn this?” How can we answer that? Talking about examples of how writing has always helped us, both long ago and today, could motivate a more serious attitude about this important academic subject. Being able to write now is even more essential for most jobs than it ever was. A brief history of why people even started writing in ancient times might be a good place to begin to persuade this reluctant writer….