Marie Hablitzel

Marie Hablitzel, author of the drawing curriculum Draw Write Now, was primarily a teacher, with a career that spanned nearly sixty years of her lifetime. This career started in 1942, and was concentrated in the California town of Red Bluff, where she taught at Gerber and Los Molinos Elementary Schools and Community Christian School. The advent of her writing career was a result of her emphasis on drawing in the classroom: "At the beginning of my teaching career," said Hablitzel, "I gave my students many opportunities to draw." Hablitzel discovered that many of her second-grade students lacked confidence in drawing; she further noticed, as she aided each individual child by showing them drawing techniques, that the whole class would attend to her advice and apply it to their own work. Hablitzel was in a sense givng drawing lessons to the whole class! Therefore, she adopted drawing among her normal school subjects, formulating new lessons until she had one for each day during the school year. Habitzel's method of starting each day by drawing with the children helped them to focus on the rest of their school work and to attend to instructions with care. The culmination of her drawing method was the birth of her curriculum, Draw Write Now, a unique combination of art and language which emphasizes handrwriting skills through drawing practice and technique.

Marie Hablitzel continued teaching until her retirement in 1982, although she continued to teach drawing and writing at Community Christian School for twenty years afterward, and served in her church as a Sunday School teacher. Aside from her lengthy teaching occupation, Hablitzel had a busy home life as the matriarch of an extensive family of six children (which she had with her husband, Bob Hablitzel), ten grandchildren, and several great-grandchildren. Hablitzel was a devoted walker, and managed to take a three-mile stroll nearly every day. Upon her death in February, 2007, Marie Habitzel is remembered by her children for her devotion to teaching, natural way with children, and her "quiet, encouraging style". Marie Hablitzel's methods in her Draw Write Now curriculum continue to benefit elementary-aged students in the areas of drawing and handwriting.