[I]t is the most common thing in the world for a new English teacher to demand that her students throw out everything they’ve worked so hard to learn and then start completely from scratch. New semester, new teacher, new rules.
I say we have no right.
I tell my students that, too–we have no right!
How, you might wonder, do I square this conviction with the fact that I explicitly tell my students that they must not write the way a lot of other teachers have taught them to write?
Well, I throw myself on their intellectual mercy, as it were. I appeal to their intelligence as readers. “What sort of writing do you like to read?” I ask them. “What sort of writing do you actually find out there in the real world? Does it look anything like what you were taught to write in your English classes?” — Tina Blue —AP English Blather (Teacher Blue)
Via Mike Arnzen, whose comments are also well worth reading: “In many cases, AP English writers are also allowed to skip college writing classes…and end up being the very same English teachers that reproduce this problem! Additionally, many composition teachers were skilled enough to ‘test out’ of composition when they were undergrads, so most of the composition teachers I know NEVER TOOK composition…”
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While we're on the subject, here's an interesting bit I picked up when Tunxis had a speaker for the Banned Books Week, I think, three semesters ago. Apparently, the people who decide whether books should be banned or not are the ones who, for the most part, haven't read them. Incredible. I still have'nt gotten over that one.
I'm amazed that public school teachers can teach anything at all, what with all the disciplinary problems and the lawsuit mentality that means a tiny majority of out-of-control students can ruin the eduation of other kids who would actually learn if given the chance. I was fortunate enough to go to a parochial high school, so discipline issues weren't as overwhelming there as they are in public school, though of course things may have changed over the past 20 years (good Lord... has it been that long?)
I was once an AP English student who experienced the worst instructor ever and almost gave up on English altogether. She handed out a list of potential paper topics, but when students turned in a paper, we were forced into revision until it stated what she wanted to earn an A. Unfortunately, she is still employed as an English teacher.
Personally, I believe that term papers should be a chance for the student to prove what he or she learned in the course, but not repeat what I state. Such behaviors lead to a failure in composition like the one Ms. Blue is identifying. I completely blame the secondary education system for that failure because of its total closed-mindedness over teaching methods.