Reflections on Education

To college students and educators,

What does it mean "to educate"? A couple of things I've recently read have caused me to ask this question. First of all, fellow-editor, Ryan, posted about the prevalent downfalls of freshman composition. As a composition instructor at a local community college, this matter particularly struck my interest. The other article relating to both parts of my current ponderings (that of what it means "to educate" and what a composition instructor should strive to do) is from The Chronicle, is written by Kurt Schick, and can be found at http://chronicle.com/article/Citation-Obsession-Get-Over/129575/.

I certainly agree with Ryan's point that many professors focus on form and not content. I also agree with Ryan's sentiment that this focus is detrimental to students who already possess writing and critical thinking skills and equally to those who do not. This type of instruction teaches students that there writing is not "correct" if not systematically or if not following a prescribed format. This format is often, of course, the five paragraph essay.

Schick's article, "Citation Obsession, Get Over It," deals with many professors' and writing centers' over-bearing focus on teaching the intricacies of citation formats such as that of the MLA. Schick says that students are being stifled when they are made to memorize such mundane information and that the focus should be instead on helping students to understand how to better integrate outside sources and information into their own writing and ideas. To further illustrate the context of the uselessness of MLA format documentation for undergraduate students, Schick argues, "Bibliographic citation has apparently eclipsed perfect grammar and the five-paragraph theme as the preoccupation of persnickety professors." Having worked for years at a writing center and for some time now as an instructor, I can attest to the truth of Schick's argument with one caveat that I'm pretty sure Ryan would agree with: citation formatting and the five-paragraph essay are both still "the preoccupation[s] of persnickety professors." And, I realize now, that both need to be thrown out the window of the ivory (and not-so-Ivory) towers of undergraduate education.

But, without them, how do we teach writing? Well, one of the concepts that may need to be embraced is that we can't "teach" much at all; what we can do is demonstrate and encourage. Many composition pedagogy writers have written about the importance of fostering an environment for learning and critical thinking. I can honestly say that I didn't really understand what that meant until a few days ago when reading my students' most recent batch of essays. They had gotten the form down- intro, three body paragraphs, and a conclusion. But, there was nothing there. I had spent far too much class time explaining formats and helping them with their generic outlines, and I had spent far too little time helping them to actually develop their ideas. Reading some of their essays was like eating a burger with no meat (not even a veggie patty), pardon the somewhat tired metaphor. The bun is nice and fluffy, the condiments are tasty, but without the meat, the questions remains, "why the hell am I eating this? Hell, why was it even made?" and when the only answer to these questions is something along the lines of "because I have to consume it because they had to make it," there is a problem. There is a problem because only a few years ago I got into this field because I wanted to do something where I could always be learning and thinking and because I wanted to encourage others to learn and to think too. When I as an instructor am only reading to grade and not with any interest in learning from what my students have to say (because, well, they didn't say much of anything) and my students are only writing to a bench mark, not for discovery or to really think about anything, what is the point of any of it? This is a question that extends to all fields of study, particularly at the college level, though I would like to think that it could be applied to any realm of education.

I'm not going to ask this rhetorically; I am just going to say it. In education, students should be encouraged to care about learning for the sake of learning and educators should feel the same. There should be excitement on both ends- there should be excitement to teach and to encourage students to think and there should be excitement in learning and thinking. Otherwise, what are any of us doing in these classrooms we spend so much of our lives in? If you're a student and you think of your time in that chair as just a means to make more money, well, there are better and, for you, more interesting ways. And if you're a professor and you think of your time in the classroom as simply your current means of making money, there are certainly more lucrative ways.

The fault for what we are, our means-to-an-end laziness, lies in the hands of the educators and the students. Professors and teachers would often like to blame it on the "damn kids;" this is to ignore the fact that the only difference between the two is a couple diplomas. We are all the same. We all fall into the trap of easy formats. It is, after all, easier to teach about MLA citation and how to write a five paragraph essay than it is to find effective ways to encourage critical thought. But, if teachers continue to teach in those easy unthinking ways, then students will continue to complete their work that same way and I will continue to be frustrated when they turn in essays that are so formulaic and unthinking that I don't want to read them.

To answer my original question, what does it mean "to educate." Well, oddly enough, dictionary.com actually has a decent answer: "to develop the faculties and powers of a person…" Let's keep that in mind the next time we are in a classroom, whether it be in a chair or at the front of the room. Let's not stifle or be stifled, let's not get caught up in what's expected, let's forget about formats for awhile. Let's remember that we are there to read, to question, to think, to write, to explore, and let's enjoy our time doing so- otherwise, let's go somewhere else.