to read makes our speaking English good
Nov. 8th, 2013 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34This post brought to you by a feverless child. :)
I normally do not post about politics or current events because this is my happy place, and I know it's the happy place for many of you, but I want to weigh in on the Rand Paul plagiarism case. According to the New York Times, the Senator "said the lapses were the result of his newfound status as a freshman senator in high demand, and the overwhelming workload that has brought with it for him and his staff." Do you know what I hear when I read that sentence? "Dr. Lunabee, we had a game this weekend. Dr. Lunabee, I'm taking 17 hours this semester. Dr. Lunabee, I'm fighting with my boyfriend. Dr. Lunabee, I'm living a real life in the real world where thing are sometimes shitty and fast paced and even though the other students in the class who also have problems didn't resort to plagiarism, I did because my life is harder and specialer than everyone else's. Can I do this assignment over?"
The Senator also said the following: "'What we are going to do from here forward, if it will make people leave me the hell alone, is we’re going to do them like college papers,” he said. “We’re going to try to put out footnotes.”' And here's the crux of what's pissing me off, and another point of connection I'm sadly finding between Senator Paul and many of my students. What happens in a college English class is not merely about those sixteen weeks of school in that one class. The point of a college English class is to teach students the reading and writing skills they will need FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES IN MULTIPLE SETTINGS. We teach students to cite their work because they need to do so in HIST 1012 and in their biology dissertations and in the reports they write for their jobs and in the romance novels they e-publish. For the Senator to dismiss those basic literacy skills taught in ENGL 1101 as irrelevant or somehow beneath him boggles my mind.
I believe this way of thinking is one of the biggest problems we face in higher education. So many times, our students are unable to understand the relevance of the material they're being taught or to make connections between what they're learning in one class and what they're learning in another unless it's explicitly articulated for them. And even then sometimes they remain skeptical. I think we do our students a disservice when we treat the subjects we teach as disparate and unrelated and when we do not consistently and constantly connect their learning in all classes to career goals. For that reason, I strongly support interdisciplinary approaches to teaching as well as the implementation of courses (like a freshman seminar, etc.) that focus on the meta-cognitive aspects of learning: What's my motivation for being in college? What are my strengths and weaknesses as a student? How can I best use the resources offered by my institution? How can I connect what I'm learning now to my future employment? What's the best way to deal with the obstacles life presents to earning my education?
Quotations taken from this newspaper article
I normally do not post about politics or current events because this is my happy place, and I know it's the happy place for many of you, but I want to weigh in on the Rand Paul plagiarism case. According to the New York Times, the Senator "said the lapses were the result of his newfound status as a freshman senator in high demand, and the overwhelming workload that has brought with it for him and his staff." Do you know what I hear when I read that sentence? "Dr. Lunabee, we had a game this weekend. Dr. Lunabee, I'm taking 17 hours this semester. Dr. Lunabee, I'm fighting with my boyfriend. Dr. Lunabee, I'm living a real life in the real world where thing are sometimes shitty and fast paced and even though the other students in the class who also have problems didn't resort to plagiarism, I did because my life is harder and specialer than everyone else's. Can I do this assignment over?"
The Senator also said the following: "'What we are going to do from here forward, if it will make people leave me the hell alone, is we’re going to do them like college papers,” he said. “We’re going to try to put out footnotes.”' And here's the crux of what's pissing me off, and another point of connection I'm sadly finding between Senator Paul and many of my students. What happens in a college English class is not merely about those sixteen weeks of school in that one class. The point of a college English class is to teach students the reading and writing skills they will need FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES IN MULTIPLE SETTINGS. We teach students to cite their work because they need to do so in HIST 1012 and in their biology dissertations and in the reports they write for their jobs and in the romance novels they e-publish. For the Senator to dismiss those basic literacy skills taught in ENGL 1101 as irrelevant or somehow beneath him boggles my mind.
I believe this way of thinking is one of the biggest problems we face in higher education. So many times, our students are unable to understand the relevance of the material they're being taught or to make connections between what they're learning in one class and what they're learning in another unless it's explicitly articulated for them. And even then sometimes they remain skeptical. I think we do our students a disservice when we treat the subjects we teach as disparate and unrelated and when we do not consistently and constantly connect their learning in all classes to career goals. For that reason, I strongly support interdisciplinary approaches to teaching as well as the implementation of courses (like a freshman seminar, etc.) that focus on the meta-cognitive aspects of learning: What's my motivation for being in college? What are my strengths and weaknesses as a student? How can I best use the resources offered by my institution? How can I connect what I'm learning now to my future employment? What's the best way to deal with the obstacles life presents to earning my education?
Quotations taken from this newspaper article
no subject
Date: 2013-11-10 03:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-14 03:23 pm (UTC)Things are so much better now. :)
I hope things are going well with you and yours!
no subject
Date: 2013-11-15 02:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-16 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-16 03:02 am (UTC)There were tears at bedtime. Not something you get over, but we had a good talk
no subject
Date: 2013-11-20 02:33 am (UTC)