Enough with the cursive already

I know that I already brought this topic up at least once in class, but I find it scary, and even slightly entertaining, that Williams points out that some teachers – probably older ones, although who really knows? – are STILL forcing kids to turn in essays that are: 1) HANDWRITTEN, and, you’ll need to brace yourself for this one, 2) DONE IN CURSIVE.

Are you serious…I mean, we need to get these people out of the schools. I wouldn’t even let them teach a dog or cat to sit or speak (even one that scratched or bit me), let alone a child. That’s just too much of a punishment for those poor animals. You might ask why I feel this way, so here goes: First of all, Williams (and I applaud him for this) suggests that these students will only end up resenting the teacher in the long run. Yeah, no kidding. Just about the last thing I’d want to do as a teacher is to get off on the wrong foot with my students by forcing them to write an essay by hand. We’ve got this thing called a computer now, and, though I’m no Bill Gates, I tend to think that it’s going to be around for awhile. Second, don’t you think that students’ writing skills could be improved by using options like Spell Check and other computer-enabled editing advantages? To me, the answer is obvious. Yes, computers make the task of writing easier for students. Why? Well, because they can type faster than they write. Besides, once I start teaching, I really don’t want to spend hours trying to decipher my students’ handwriting. I might as well go buy some chickens, dip their feet into ink, and then have them run across some blank paper before I try to read it. Here’s a bit of advice for teachers who still force their students to turn in handwritten assignments: if you want to deter your students from slipping a whoopee cushion under the seat of your chair, then let them use a computer. After all, technology is a good thing. Then again, maybe any teacher who forces students to turn in handwritten assignments deserves to get the bleep scared out of him/her.

OK, so now that I’ve gotten that rant out of the way, I thought I’d talk about what Williams has to say in regard to the use of writing models in the classroom, or, to be even more specific, the use of a very old and outdated model, in particular. That is, that using works of literature as conventional writing models, has, in essence, failed to produce good writers in the classroom setting. This is interesting, because as an English major, I have always been interested in not just reading novels, but taking them apart and getting a look at their “guts” as well. Poor analogy, but deal with it. Anyway, Williams suggests that many well-read people happen to be poor writers, which basically blows this whole theory out of the water. Furthermore, he argues that teachers who use literary texts are writing models are, in fact, confusing object with artifact. Basically, what he is saying is that the focus of the class tends to shift to reading rather than writing.
So, I guess what I am getting at here is this: when someone attempts to teach writing, the first thing they need to do is actually pick a model that will accomplish this goal. Then, once they’ve gotten that out of the way, they need to stick with the mission at hand, which is to teach the student how to improve their writing.

I can see how this whole process – that is, the job of teaching a student how to write – can get all screwed up at times. For instance, if a teacher really likes a particular writer he or she might be more apt to incorporate a certain novel into a lesson. So, what really occurs is that the class morphs into a discussion of the novel, rather focusing on the overall mission, which is, of course, to develop the students’ writing skills. This is also dangerous because if the students in the classroom aren’t enthused about the writer or the specific novel that the class is centered on, then they’ll get turned off by the writing process as a whole. So the moral is this story is: If your job is to teach people how to write, then actually do it. Don’t get all caught up in your own agenda. After all, the last thing that the world gets is another poor writer producing another crappy blog like this one.