I felt this article on a deep level because it is something I grapple with on a daily basis in my job as a high school English teacher. For many of my students writing feels exclusionary. Whether it is the language barrier many of my immigrant students feel, or the fear of grammar rules they either never quite learned, or just cannot seem to remember. They look at writing as something smart people do, and they do not feel smart. This exclusionary barrier bleeds over into college, where many of my students are the first person in their families to go. Many feel they lack the skills necessary to write at the college level, so I often find myself wrestling with this word skill. When Rose says “In the case of writing, the skills should be mastered before one enters college and takes on higher-order endeavors. And the place for such instruction-before or after entering college-is the English class. Yes, the skill can be refined, but its fundamental development is over…”(8), I cringed because I do not know what that looks like. What does mastery of a skill of writing look like? I am a pretty skilled writer with a degree in English, who teaches writing every day, and I do not think I have mastered it. I am thirty-five years old, so how can I expect my sixteen year old students to master this skill.
This article makes me think about Forced Learning. Students who are scared of writing have a hard time learning because it feels forced. They are struggling with confidence, then they have to take in all of this other information, much of which slips through them, landing them in remediation, a word with such a stigma, I get students who try to take AP Language who have no business taking it because on the off chance that they will get a four or five on the exam would mean that for many of them, they would not have to take a college composition course and possibly end up in a remedial class which they have to pay for, but does not count for college credit towards graduation. This is the perfect way to exclude poor students who struggle to pay for college in the first place.
It is tough to see how this plays out in the long haul because I think it requires an overhaul in our entire educational system, but also in the job market. Some people were not meant to go to college, but we keep shoving that idea down their throats, so they get in, struggle to pay for it, end up in remedial classes, then dropout feeling like failures. It is a vicious cycle, and it is something I spend too much time thinking about.
It took me a while to understand that education is not for everyone. I suppose because my parents did not become the microbiologists and psychologists that they wanted to become. For that reason I was forced to follow their medical track and I did. For three semesters I studied biochemistry and eventually switched my major to English, but my point is that even though my older brother and I have gone to college, my little brother has not. He refuses to go and says he does not like school. It took me a while to understand that, but it is true. Although school is not for everyone, it is necessary, however, that students know the basic skills. I cringe also at using that word, but I will share with you a piece of what I posted on my reading response post:
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to thinking of English as a skill, I will quote what Rose says, “Writing is not just a skill with which one can present or analyze knowledge. It is essential to the very existence of certain kinds of knowledge”(593). In other words writing should not be placed in the world of technicality, it should be thought of as something “…complex…that is continually developing as one engages in new tasks with new materials for new audiences” (592).
I, like you, graduated with a BA in english and joined the MA program because I did not feel prepared enough. This comes to show that even teachers who may or may not be at the PhD level still struggle with writing, editing, and revising. It is hard to motivate students in high school, who sometimes fail to see the value or importance of education, due to lack of resources and familial support. The question is, how much are we as teachers willing to do for students who lack motivation or resources? How far are we willing to go? Are we willing to stay with students after class? Will we give up our lunch time to join them in their lunch time? Will we take them on a library trip, if necessary? Will we provide them with handouts on punctuation and editing examples? Even if it seems like a linear scientific way of teaching. Will we meet with the parents and bug them until they realize that their child needs extra help or motivation? These are all questions that I am faced with, more so because I have zero teaching experience. Point is, I think, that we can only do so much given the amount of students and time given. What we can do is give them a taste of genres used both in professional and non-professional fields so that when they transfer to college, if some do, they can transfer that knowledge. Of course, through practice and time, students may become better at writing, so we hope.