"Dreams Can Come True": Why Wilson Rawls Would Believe in Visual Arts in the Classroom

• I am using a database to learn more about Wilson Rawls, hoping to discover how he felt about elementary and secondary education and how he would feel about the use of visual arts in literary instruction.
• Literature Resource Center (LRC). "Provides access to biographies, bibliographies, critical analysis, and web resources of authors from every age and literary discipline."
• I simply typed "Wilson Rawls" into the basic search found on the LRC database website, and the first source I found worked with what I was looking for, so I didn't have to do an advanced search. 
• The source is actually just an incredibly short letter from Wilson Rawls to "those who want to be writers," stating that dreams can come true and the way to become a writer is just to keep trying. Though this does not directly address visual arts or even education, per se, it reveals a lot about Wilson Rawls' personality and his attitude toward learning.
• Wilson, Rawls. "Dreams Can Come True: A Special Message from Wilson Rawls." Idaho Falls Public Library (12 Sept. 2001). Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 80. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 26 May 2011.
• Wilson Rawls wrote a letter to those who want to be writers, encouraging them to write a lot and not worry about making mistakes.
• Because I assert that using visual arts in literary instruction is beneficial for students of language arts, and I further assert that this technique would be especially useful in the study of Where the Red Fern Grows, I wanted to know how the late author, Wilson Rawls, would feel about this. Just based on this letter, I can tell that Wilson Rawls understood that there are many ways to achieve the same end--expression.