Learn To Write Now

𝗠𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝟭𝟴 𝗧𝗼𝗱𝗮𝘆

June 18, 2008.

Most people probably don't know that it is International Picnic Day. History buffs might remember it as the day Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Beatles fans know it as Sir Paul McCartney's birthday.

For me, however, June 18 will always be remembered for a much less historic but far more personal reason.

It was the day I gave birth to my third child.

Her name was Learn To Write Now.

And today, she turns 18.

When I started LTWN from the basement of our home, I had no idea what I was doing. I know entrepreneurs are supposed to say they had a vision and a five-year plan. I didn't.

What I had was a nagging feeling that something was missing.

As a parent, educator, and lifelong lover of language, I kept seeing students who were learning grammar rules, reading books, and preparing for tests, yet many struggled when asked to put their own thoughts on paper. Writing had somehow become an afterthought.

That bothered me.

Enough that I walked away from a well-paying corporate career to see if I could do something about it.

Looking back, that may have been either incredibly brave or completely foolish. Perhaps a little bit of both.

In those early years, LTWN was very much a one-woman show. I wrote the curriculum. I taught the classes. I answered parent emails. I updated spreadsheets. I worried about enrollment. I celebrated every new student. I carried bins of supplies. I even remember wondering whether anyone besides me believed writing deserved this much attention.

Thankfully, a lot of people did.

When I think about this 18-year journey, I realize that LTWN was never really built by one person.

It started with my mother.

Every summer vacation, Amma would ask me to write an essay every single day. Any topic. Any length. I happily complied. At the time, I thought it was just one more thing she wanted me to do. Looking back, she was nurturing something she saw in me long before I saw it in myself.

My father was the reader and wordsmith in the family. Books, crossword puzzles, literature, wordplay...he loved them all. Many of my earliest memories involve words being treated not as schoolwork but as something joyful.

Then came the teachers.

I have been blessed with teachers who read what I wrote and took the time to respond thoughtfully. One of them wrote a comment I have never forgotten: "Someday you are going to change the world through your writing."

At the time, I laughed.

Today, I hope I have at least helped a few young people change their own worlds through writing.

And then there is Shaju, my partner in education and in life.

Anyone who knows us knows that LTWN may have started as my dream, but it quickly became our family project. There were plenty of evenings, weekends, vacations, and dinner conversations that somehow circled back to lesson plans, students, curriculum, technology, marketing, or college admissions.

Sometimes I joke that he works harder for LTWN than I do.

The joke is only partially a joke.

My children, Manav and Manya deserve special mention as well. Over the years, they have unknowingly served as test subjects for countless ideas. New lessons. New activities. New volunteer projects. New approaches. If something was being piloted, chances are it first landed on one of my children.

I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to my family, friends, and the many parents who trusted me with their children long before LTWN had a reputation. You enrolled when there were no awards, no accolades, and no long list of college admissions to point to. You believed in the mission first.

And then came the students.

Thousands of them.

When people ask me what I am most proud of, they sometimes expect me to mention Ivy League admissions, published authors, awards, recognitions, or national expansion.

Those things are wonderful.

But honestly?

What I remember most are the individual moments.

The reluctant writer who suddenly discovered confidence.

The student who proudly published a first article.

The teenager who found their voice through an essay.

The adult who reinvented a career after learning to communicate more effectively.

The parent who wrote to tell us that their child now voluntarily writes for fun.

Those moments never show up on brochures, but they are the reason we do this work.

Of course, there have been milestones along the way.

We grew from a basement workshop into a national online program. We survived and adapted during COVID. We built a team of extraordinary educators who care deeply about students. We helped students gain admission to incredible universities. We watched student work appear in publications and anthologies. We received recognition for our curriculum and methodology. We became a proudly women-led organization.

Each milestone felt significant at the time.

Yet what matters most, eighteen years later, is that the mission remains exactly the same.

Teach students to think. Teach students to communicate. Teach students to write.

People often ask me whether AI has changed the future of writing.

Of course it has.

But I don't think writing was ever about producing words.

Writing is about producing thought.

It is about figuring out what you believe, what you value, and how to communicate that to another human being.

That part has not changed. And I suspect it never will.

So today, on LTWN's 18th birthday, my heart is full.

Full of gratitude for every teacher who encouraged me.

Every family who trusted me. Every colleague who joined me. Every friend who supported me. Every student who walked through our virtual or physical doors.

Thank you for helping raise this third child of mine.

She has grown into something far bigger and more meaningful than I ever imagined on that sunny June day in 2008.

And if the last eighteen years have taught me anything, it is this:

A single idea, nurtured patiently and consistently, can grow into something that changes lives.

Happy 18th Birthday, Learn To Write Now.

The story continues...

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College application season has a way of making everything feel urgent at once. Our founder, Mrs. Davis, gave these tips to our CAE families this week:

1. Schedule weekly time for college conversations.
2. Visit campuses this summer, before fall gets complicated.
3. Build the list around fit, not prestige.
4. Expect the uneven weeks. Some will feel like progress. Others won't. Both are normal.
5. Remember you have support. You are not navigating this alone.

What questions are keeping you up at night? Drop it in the comments.

Here is something most test prep companies will not tell you: you cannot cram your way to a strong SAT or ACT verbal score.

The students who perform best on the English sections are almost always the ones who have spent years reading widely and reading well. Strong comprehension, sophisticated vocabulary, the ability to cut through a dense passage without losing the thread — these skills are built over time, not in a test prep sprint.

That does not mean high schoolers are out of luck. A student who commits to reading challenging material now (long-form journalism, literary fiction, etc.) will feel the difference on test day. And middle schoolers who build the habit today are laying a foundation that makes test prep almost effortless when the time comes.

Summer registration is now open for our PSAT, SAT, and ACT Verbal Test Prep program, as well as our LTWN 360 year-round ELA enrichment program. Spots are limited. Enroll today at the link in the comments.

This is the myth that catches the most families off guard, and understandably so. When a student has spent four years earning a perfect transcript, being told it isn't enough feels genuinely unfair.
Here's the honest context: at selective schools, a 4.0 is the floor, not the ceiling. It gets you into the pool. What moves you through the pool is everything else — the quality of your writing, the strength of your recommendations, and how clearly your application communicates who you are beyond your grades.

The students who get the best outcomes are the ones who understand this early enough to do something about it.

Is your application stronger than your GPA? learntowritenow.com

Most kids will say yes to this one immediately. That is when the real conversation starts.

Push a little. What kind of failing? Failing a test you did not study for, or failing something you worked hard at? Is there a point where failure stops being instructive and starts being discouraging? How would you know the difference?

Watch how quickly a simple question becomes a genuinely difficult one. That movement, from easy answer to honest complexity, is exactly the kind of thinking we develop in our summer Speech and Debate workshop for Grades 2-8.

LTWN's summer programs start the week of July 8th. Enrollment is open, and spots are limited.

And tell us: what did your kid say when you pushed?

This question tells you a lot about how your kid sees themselves, and what they think the world rewards.

Ask it and then listen carefully to the reasoning, not just the answer. Do they pick smart because it feels safer? Creative because it sounds more interesting? Do they push back on the question and say you need both? That pushback, the refusal to accept a false choice, is exactly the instinct we want to develop.

In our summer Speech and Debate workshop for Grades 2-8, students learn that the best argument often starts by challenging the premise. That is a skill that follows them everywhere.

LTWN's summer programs start the week of July 8th. Enrollment is open, and spots are limited.

And tell us: what did your kid choose, and why?

We hear this one constantly, and it feels logical on the surface. More chances, more opportunities, better odds. But the math doesn't actually work that way.

When a student applies to 20 schools, something has to give. Either the supplements become generic, or the list becomes unfocused, or both. Admissions officers read thousands of applications, and they can tell immediately when a student has written for any school rather than their school.

Ten applications where every piece of writing is specific, intentional, and genuinely tailored will almost always outperform twenty that were spread too thin. Quality is the strategy.

Want to build a smarter school list? --> learntowritenow.com

This one goes deeper than it looks. Start there.

Ask your kid the question straight, then follow the thread. What would we lose? What problems might actually disappear? What does physical difference have to do with how we treat each other, and would sameness change that?

Kids who will sit with a question like this, who resist the easy answer and keep pulling on the thread, are building something that no worksheet can teach. That intellectual curiosity, the willingness to stay with a hard question, is at the heart of everything we do at Learn to Write Now, and it is what our summer Speech and Debate workshop for Grades 2-8 is designed to develop.

LTWN's summer programs start the week of July 8th. Enrollment is open, and spots are limited.

And tell us: where did your family come out on this one?

This one sounds straightforward until your kid actually tries to answer it.

What counts as common sense? Is it something you learn or something you are born with? Can you have one without the other? Some kids will go straight to a confident answer.

Others will start pulling the question apart before they even take a side. Both responses tell you something. The second one is the one we are always looking for.

In our summer Speech and Debate workshop for Grades 2-8, students learn to slow down before committing to a position and to question the question itself. It is a habit that follows them into every high-stakes conversation they will ever have.

LTWN's summer programs start the week of July 8th. Enrollment is open, and spots are limited.

And tell us: which kind of thinker is your kid?

This is the myth that catches the most families off guard, and understandably so. When a student has spent four years earning a perfect transcript, being told it isn't enough feels genuinely unfair.

Here's the honest context: at selective schools, a 4.0 is the floor, not the ceiling. It gets you into the pool. What moves you through the pool is everything else — the quality of your writing, the strength of your recommendations, and how clearly your application communicates who you are beyond your grades.

The students who get the best outcomes are the ones who understand this early enough to do something about it.