Ideally, the purpose of FYC is to help students refine their writing skills. The program is a bridge from high school to college composition. After seeing some of the students' writing, I am somewhat troubled. The majority of the writing is far below what I would expect from a college freshman, particularly at a reputable college such as Texas Tech. I wonder how TTU admitted some of these students who do not know where a sentence begins and ends or how to use commas. Are composition skills not being evaluated for college entrance? I understand English is not everyone's specialty, but the standards should be raised.
In addition, some of the lessons we are being required to teach seem entirely too elementary. Should not, for example, a student who is a freshman in college already know how to summarize? Perhaps we should consider teaching FYC in high school rather than in college. This would still ensure a level of competency throughout the disciplines while arming those who do not enter college with certain skills that will certainly benefit them in the real world. Then we, as instructors, would be free to teach higher-level lessons in a completely different course.
I do not entirely blame the students for their poor writing skills. In fact, I mostly blame the high school educational system. This seems like such a catastrophic issue involving several institutional levels, I am not sure where we would even begin to remedy it.
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2 comments:
Your post got me thinking about all of the conversations I've had over the past year about the problems with public education. It's such a big issue with different problems from school to school, district to district, and state to state, that I don't even know where to begin looking for the solution.
You mentioned the problem in the high schools, but what about the middle schools and elementary schools? Like you said, I think this is a multi-level problem (and not just with writing) that seems to trickle down to the roots of education.
To some degree, lower standards is a result of offering mass education in the United States--standards are lowered because the doors are open to everyone, and the doors are open to everyone because we believe education can improve individuals and improve communities. And the higher standards are raised, the more elitist education becomes. Of course, as you said, falling standards also come with a price.
I enjoyed your post, you raise a lot of issues about our place at the institution and about education in general in the U.S. Take care.
I've always been a huge advocate for taking responsibility for your own education. I attended Ohio State for a BS and MA, and I got an excellent education. My PhD is from Ball State, and there, too, I got an excellent education--but I had to take far more responsibility, since the course offerings, etc. were limited there.
I guess I hate to see fingers pointed to "HS education" (or even state mandated testing, though I despise it). Ultimately, students--particularly 16-18 year old HS students--should bear some responsibility for their education....shouldn't they?
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