Helping, not telling

Towards the end of the section on Romantic rhetoric, Williams points out, and says that opponents of Romantic rhetoric want to know one thing: “how teachers are suppose to empower their students and what they are suppose to empower them to do.” (p. 66)

Fair enough question.

As an advocate of Romantic rhetoric myself, I have one thought, or answer if you must, to these opponents: Romantic rhetoric is a way of self-expression, of free-writing to allow the students to think freely, write freely – self-exploration – all of which Williams has pointed out. It’s a creative way to think, write, act, and feel free of judgment and criticism, and a staple (I think) in our critical thought-process analytical abilities. If we can’t think and learn about how we feel about ourselves, about our abilities, our goals, our likes, our dislikes, our opinions… how are we going to be able to focus and critically analyze a foreign topic? If we can’t organize and learn from our own thoughts, how are we going to do so for others?

The question on how are we suppose to empower our students is a question I believe every teacher – whether an opponent or advocate of romantic rhetoric or not – struggles with; and there is no easy, right, or wrong way to do so. All you can do, just like a parent with their children, is to teach them that thinking for themselves, emotionally and critically, is what is going to help in all courses of work. Sure, they have only been through so much as kids, but every child has something they believe in, whether it’d be something as small as Santa Claus or something as important as poverty, global aid, or abortion, but as long as their finding their abilities to think about how they feel about a chosen topic, it will allow them to think critically and effectively about other topics in schooling.

It all boils down to taking this romantic rhetoric piece - the freely written assignment without structure - and to: 1.) Ask them to take a look at what they wrote, and ask them why they wrote (or feel) that way, to provide definition to what made them feel that way - what was their source? how did they learn about the topic at hand? etc. etc.; 2.) help students how to formally organize it with a structure from beginning to end I.E. : Introduction: saying what it is they wrote about; Body: information, thoughts and feelings; Conclusion: why they feel that way.

That was of course a loose, informal example but you get the point. All in all, I think romantic rhetoric is something that will not only help students think for themselves and give them personal satisfaction, but will also help them organize and give opinions and meaning to a topic at hand.