So...what the hell am I supposed to write?

Chapter 3 of The Way Literacy Lives effectively describes our writing program here and has given me some useful insight as to why first year composition courses have this curriculum. The argument against Russell Durst's study and conclusions on FYC courses and how they should be taught brought up some important points about, not only objectivity in the classroom, but also the prompts for student papers.

I think it is important to emphasize the fact that no student--particularly those who are unaccustomed to thinking critically for themselves--should feel they are being "force-fed" any ideology, liberal or otherwise. It is not the role of the teacher to train students to think like him/her; rather, the teacher's responsibility is to train students to think, period. We merely give them the tools they need to express those thoughts. Therefore, we as teachers need to remain objective in the classroom, no matter what. We need to be careful about how our personal, political, or religious beliefs might influence the way we present ourselves as educators, as well as to refrain from letting any potential bias show.

That having been said, keeping those beliefs entirely out of the classroom seems needlessly limiting for a group of students who are just learning how to express themselves via writing. And while it is true that most freshman students on this campus come into the program without any real idea about what they'd like to major in or do for a living, not writing about any interests that could potentially be a part of their future careers seems weird. If our goal is to make students better writers--or more to the point, to show them that writing WILL be involved in their future careers at some point--then why not focus more on that aspect when teaching? It might not be beneficial to spend too little time on rather advanced topics such as these--ultimately doing too much and overwhelming students--this is true. But is it practical to focus on one topic and one topic only all semester long, a topic which is not only advanced itself for a freshman class, but that also applies to only a small percentage of students?

So what do we have our students write? What are they going to need to write in the future? How can we prepare them for this?

It seems that, if they are going to write for a career--and if they are lucky--it will be for a career that they are passionate about, perhaps even on subjects that they are interested in. Or, career aside, if they merely want to express themselves in a very formal, argumentative way, of course they will be passionate about what they are writing about. And if they are writing, they are thinking. This time, for themselves.