I typically choose not to write my posts on the text we read for class because we do so much discussion about it in class that I feel I am rehashing similar ideas during that time. It also gives a break to the typical classroom style conversation, however, I could not pass up writing about this. To be perfectly honest this article was riding on a fine line of offensive and honesty. Let me explain.
I do agree with a lot of what Sheils is saying. Today our writing/speech is no where near developed as it was back in the 1800s. If you look at literature from that time frame it is extremely well written even beyond some of the people I look up to in the world of writing. I do agree that through the years that we have gotten lazy, myself included. I believe the reason this article made me so frustrated is because it felt like a personal stab at teachers. Children are learning through their teachers and to say they aren’t learning what is needed to write/read/speak at any decent level of English is virtually saying teachers aren’t doing their jobs. Ouch, that stings.
I work incredibly hard with all of my children from young three’s to late twelve’s on their reading, writing, and speech. I am constantly working on changing bad habits such as saying, “what?” to “what did you say?” or “pardon me”. This isn’t just about manners, it is also about having them intelligently express thoughts. I spend hours sounding out letters with three year olds and have them practicing writing their name quickly after their second birthday. I have reading sessions in the morning before school with my older students. I have them read books such as Sherlock Holmes and Harry Potter so they have exposure to more challenging vocabulary. This article is basically saying all that I do is not really helping at all because kids now a days still can’t read and write. After reading this article I was half tempted to just say, “Well you can’t write either Marril Sheils!” She can. This wasn’t a personal attack there are exceptions and I understand that which is why I am able to agree on some topics, but for some of it my anger blinded me.
I was upset by a lot of this article from the teacher perspective. As a student though, I agree, I do think my writing is sometimes shitty as ever and sometimes when I read peers writing I think terrible things inside my head. But as a teacher I have to put my foot down. Every fiber in my being wants to prove that what I am doing is preparing our future generations and preparing them well.
I am curious though in a class full of future educators if it bothered anyone even in the slightest. I may stand alone and that is fine (I still 100% stand by that I am teaching to my best abilities), but do you really feel as though our teachers are doing that poorly of a job when you are able to see all the hard work that goes into running a classroom? Does anyone else feel that people not in the educational field may not understand the difficulties in getting a child to an appropriate reading/writing/speech level? Do you think that Shiels even considered the large population of kids who are lazy and simply don’t want to learn no matter how hard you try to get to them? Or the kids that physically/mentally can’t get to that point due to restrictions such as learning disorders or even handicaps? Let’s talk about it.
The way Sheils talked about teachers was definitely unsettling to me. I thought about maybe agreeing and defending my teachers, but I realized that until I got to college, I had no idea how to write a good essay. Up through middle school, writing essays was mostly reserved for history class and English relied heavily on grammar rules or punctuation or something similar. In high school, writing essays for English classes on books or other materials became prevalent. However, none of it prepared us for well-planned and proper essays. Each essay was a checklist of components necessary in the papers; for example, “no more than two ‘to be’ verbs per paragraph,” “no two sentences in the same paragraph can start with the same word,” or “a hyphen, semi-colon, and colon must be used in each paragraph,” to name a few. As long as these simple guidelines were met and the thesis sentence was well-written, the rest of the essay could be poorly written and off-topic but would still receive a good grade. Only one teacher ever in my high school career taught us to write actual essays that would be considered acceptable in college. Because of my experience with how writing was taught in school, I think I would actually agree with Sheils about how teachers in schools aren’t teaching well at all.
Regardless, I also agree that people that have never been in a position in which they had to teach someone else writing would fully understand the difficulties associated with it. While no student can reach the same level of reading, writing, or speech, teachers should definitely teach students the standard English that is necessary to survive in our society and to give them the best possible chance of success. I definitely don’t think Shiels was writing his criticisms about teachers after having taken students unwilling or unable to learn into account.
Elyse,
I completely agree with everything you said and I actually feel the same way. As a student, I definitely understand what she is saying, however, I couldn’t help but take offense to the fact the she is attacking teachers, at least that is the way I read the article. Currently, I am not a teacher so I can’t defend my actions, but I can tell you with certainty that I will do everything in my power to ensure my students are learning and becoming literate, intelligent young adults. Teaching is my passion. I almost feel as if this article was an attack towards the teachers who just don’t care, the people who became teachers for summers off. Therefore, I don’t think all teachers are doing a poor job, but these types of teachers definitely aren’t striving for success, nor do they care, and students can typically determine which teachers these are. In turn, when a student can recognize this, they don’t put forth effort either. This type of situation is a lose-lose. The result is neither the teacher nor the student want to be where they’re at, and nothing gets accomplished. This is the environment I feel Sheils is targeting.
Another point you make is that people who are not in the teaching field do not understand how difficult it is to actually get a child to learn. It takes patience, an incredible amount. I guarantee people who support this article are not passionate teachers, and honestly couldn’t last a day teaching a classroom. There are so many different ability levels, personalities, attitudes, etc., grouped into a classroom at any given time, therefore teachers have such a tough job, not just teaching, but motivating their students to want to learn.
Kristie Teorsky
To some extent, I was not as offended by what Sheils was writing, at least from a teacher’s perspective. This might be my personal arrogance, but I know that I can write and read very well, and I have no doubt that as a teacher I will be extremely committed to teaching my students not only how to write well, but to enjoy it, and to present themselves in a clear and put-together way. I think that her criticisms of teachers who themselves were bad writers is justified, and I do agree to a certain extent that teachers should be tested initially, and maybe even every few years, to ensure they are still at the top of their game.
What I was offended by though, was the rest of the article. To some extent, this “crisis” happens once a generation, and it’s gotten extremely tedious. Literacy changes, the English language changes. I don’t agree that the English language was better in the 18oo’s- I think it excelled in areas like description, long-winded metaphors, and showing off vocabulary, but I prefer the less stuffy style of today, where writers can be open about topics rather than vague, or can manipulate language to create beautiful images that the reader is open to interpret (for example: “I am sleep”). While yes, I agree that the writing examples in this paper were not good quality at all, I think the big errors were spelling and simple organization and punctuation. To expect the next generation to write like the one before them, let alone the authors of the 19th century, is a disappointment waiting to happen. Different generations have different ways of expressing themselves, and no way is more or less valid than the other, and does not deserve to be discredited because others fear change and believe themselves to be perpetually in the right.
I was pretty upset by the article at first too. As a future educator, and also as someone who has coached and tutored many kids, I felt that it was kind of an attack. However, I stepped back for a minute and forced myself to reconsider. I don’t necessarily think the article was trying to say it is entirely the fault of teachers. I think the article is just addressing the issue as a whole and although blame is put on the teachers, some blame is also put on students and technology as well. Yes, I found it irritating that they lumped all teachers together into a group of remedial readers and writers when clearly it cannot be possible that all teachers in 1975 were lacking that much education. I personally don’t want to get too worked up about it because I will just get angry, and I can’t change something that was written years before I was born. All I can do is prove the article wrong by making sure to engage all my students and make them want to learn. Every single student will not be 100% successful. It’s just not possible. However, I’m not sure the article gave a realistic view of 1975. Maybe it did; I wasn’t there. However, I think if I was a teacher when this article came out I would be very upset not only to know that there is a possibility other educators were lacking in education and also that students were not receiving the education they deserved.