The author here addresses the issue of why students in writing classes have a tendency to not care about the effort and time that they have put into thier papers, citing as an example that, after having returned thier papers with corrections, he always finds a few in the trash can before he leaves. He starts by looking at student attitudes about writing and writers, noting that students who dislike or fear writing will respect those that are successful at writing out of the belief that these successful students have talent - which is a myth that writing teachers need to dispel since his belief is that writing is a skill that can be taught. From looking at student attitudes over writing, he expands to student attitudes over college, noting that while students want to be considered smart, they don't want to be considered nerds - therefore students are careful not to put too much effort, just enough to be smart, but not too much to be considered nerdish. Another attitude is that college is a means to an end, muck like most jobs in our world today - ergo, what students care about is the grade they recieve on thier paper, not the paper itself.
After examining student attitudes, the author examines faculty attitudes, pointing out that while most academics claim that FYCs are incredibly important, few faculty members actually want or are willing to teach these courses. He then moved on to institutional inconsistencies, noting that while tuition is at its highest, government and corporate aid is at its lowest.
I think Dubson presents several good analogies. I liked the comparison of writing a composition with little to no investment to the "exam cram" (96). Students who approach any subject this way, writing or otherwise, will take little to nothing away from the class.
ReplyDeleteI also like his description of the "robber baron mindset" of many college institution that is followed by "academic Darwinism" (107). If students are going to invest a significant amount of money into their education, BOTH them and the institution (from instructors to administrators)need to be prepared to invest time and effort to help them be successful. Sometimes this is not what happens.
What he suggests as a solution is the type of intervention in a student's learning/writing process suggested by some of the essays we have read in class such as Sondra Perl’s “The Composing Process of Unskilled College writers”. He mentions, however, that this will require more time on the teacher's part and will cost more money, which people might resist.