Comments on Comments

Here is what I think should happen. A student comments on a student's paper. A teacher comments on that same paper. The two students then discuss what comments were helpful, which were not helpful, and why.

My teaching philosophy is starting to turn really pessimistic. I feel like writing needs to be taught in small classes on a case by case basis. The whole idea of a uniform ("fair") writing class across several hundred students is absurd. Some kids may get a bad teacher; that sucks. Okay, so incorporate writing into more of their classes. Make students learn to write in order to pass their other classes. If a certain style of writing is not necessary to one discipline or in life, then don't make those students learn it. Originally, college was supposed to be a broad education, seeing all of the known world and studying, what, rhetoric, math and...something else. What is the purpose of college now, for most students? To make them eligible to apply for jobs in a specific field. Okay. Then what knowledge do they need? Knowledge relevant to that field.

What about kids interested in a broader study, a more traditional liberal arts education? That's what small liberal arts colleges are for. I should know. That's why I went to one. And you know what? The people who came expecting a focus on real-life training, and job relevant classes, were sorely disappointed. It's okay for different universities to have different goals. It's okay for different departments to have different goals. Engineers are not poorly educated if they leave Texas Tech unable to write a poetry analysis, or even a compare/contrast essay. However, it is not okay if they can't reason through WHY a bridge will or won't remain standing for the next 20 years, and then write that line of reasoning in a clear and articulate manner. Unfortunately, the English department can't teach a chemistry student how to write a research grant. So various departments need to take it upon themselves to teach students how to write in their individual disciplines. The English department needs to teach:
1. Organization: thesis, arguments, counter-arguments, conclusion
2. Sentance structure: a correct sentence, varying sentences, using commas in sentences
3. Grammar: the obvious basics, a few details.

If we want to effectively teach these skills, the subject matter needs to be relevant and engaging to each individual student as much as possible. So either focus on writing in the workplace (resumes, memos, grants, e-mails, cover letter, thank you letter) or get students to bring in work from another class, and go over it to check out the grammar usage (but not style or citations, because these differ from discipline to discipline).

That's my blog. I haven't said anything new. I talked to my cousin this weekend, who is an 8th grade teacher, and we chatted about teaching philosophies / theory vs. practice. It makes me despair for teachers around the world. And she likes her job. It just sounds like a lot of theory only works for a select group of students. So I don't know. I feel like someone should drop me in a classroom for a few weeks, and then see how my philosophy holds up. Right now, it's this water balloon just before it hits the ground.