Earl links to an article written by lit professor Stanley Fish, arguing that composition students should be taught HOW to write as opposed to WHAT to write about.
One of the biggest problems that students have that I can see as both a parent and a college professor is that they don't know how to logically construct an argument using the English language. While black, brown, and poor kids of various ethnic backgrounds are hit hardest, this is an AMERICAN phenomenon.
I don't see this is as being an either-or thing. You should be able to teach content and form simultaneously. But what Fish is talking about is something a lot deeper than just giving people various models of essays. We should expect freshman comp students to be able to logically structure an argument. We shouldn't expect them to come out of that class knowing Ellison. Form should rule.
You are right again. Don't give in to the false dichotomies constructed by feeble minds and dampened spirits. Form and content go together. Oddly enough, what is actually missing is context...The context is what provides the basis for the arguments that your writers are having such difficulty constructing.
In my work here in NY, I see children in classes where the meaning of persons, places and things have been recontextualized and decontextualized to render them meaningless. In sum, there is nothing to argue, and the structure, then, matters little except that the absence of it reaffirms the notions, fears and limiting expectations of most educators.
Posted by: Temple3 | May 31, 2005 at 01:09 PM