This is merely my opinion, based on observable evidence.
But, they hate writing papers because it's tedious and boring. Take something really interesting, that you are passionate about, and break it into a "5 paragraph essay" and it loses all of its natural beauty.
So, why do we, as an education system, force them to do it? People need to be able to express clear and supported ideas.
How often does the typical grown adult, who is not in college, need to do this? All the time. It's how we make informed decisions and express our viewpoints clearly.
How often does it have to be formally written - post college? Almost never - I'm a middle school English teacher and I spend a lot of class time teaching and guiding kids to write correctly and write well, but since graduating from college, I have not needed to do so myself since. I choose to, but I don't need to.
Are there other methods of discourse that could teach them these skills in a transferrable way? YES - blogging, film projects, oral presentations and debates, class discussions, creating wikis, drawing a comic book, Prezi, social networking, and a whole slew of other options.
Final question - Why are we trapped in a 2 dimensional education system?
1 comment:
Good post Jeff. You are so right. Why can't every student start a blog at the beginning of the year. They could use as a running account of their writing. Their blog could even be used for all subjects and separated by categories and then cross referenced by tags.
Their blog could even turn into a pursuit that would extend past just, say high school. Who knows, maybe it could turn into a life long habit of writing. We all know we need more people that can write. Again, good post Jeff. You idea has legs!
Post a Comment