Part 1, Section 5, School Lunches Summary and Analysis

One wouldn't expect the topic of grade school lunches to contain wisdom for writing. Yet, with Anne, it does. Using a short assignment written with her students, Anne illustrates how the previously shared techniques would work with any type of topic.

The school lunch is a short assignment. It overcomes perfectionism in that every writer has something to write about lunch. When she and her students are overwhelmed by the amount of material possible even with the topic of lunch, they return to the idea of writing only one inch. In the case of the lunches, one inch turns out to be a sandwich for the class.

While focusing with her students on sandwiches, Anne injects the same introspective humor as in previous chapters. She again pulls from experiences with her father, asking, "Why do...