Blue Notes from a Red Zone

Education, Writing, Formulas and Other Things That Don't Fit

Now that we are well into the scholastic year, I am once again completely frustrated with the educational system. Much of what passes for sound educational technique is nothing less than a sin against humanity.

To put this into historical perspective, some of the worst offenses in our educational system were created by attempts to correct some of our worst offenses in society. For centuries, the United States and every other developed country restricted public education to a sliver of the public (undeveloped countries didn't educate anyone). Children working in factories, on farms, as migrant workers, who had the wrong skin color or whose parents were too newly arrived from the wrong place, were not part of the universal education movement.

Some 10-15 years after Brown vs. Topeka established that separate "but equal" schooling was unconstitutional, the country began looking at expanding educational opportunities for all children. First in the South, following court orders overturning legislated school segregation, then in the North, following riots and shame, schools began to realize that they had to grapple with a multitude of races, cultures, socioeconomic levels, languages and faiths.

The first efforts were very haphazard and random. Some schools continued to enforce the same curriculum, geared to middle-class families filled with Janes, Dicks and Spots. Other schools tried to set different expectations and goals for different groups of children. No one had a clue as to what they were doing, and schools began their much heralded descent into mediocrity and incompetence.

Eventually, the public caught on to the fact that schools systems nationwide were groping in the dark without a flashlight. Books with catchy titles like "Why Johnny Can't Read," started becoming best sellers. William Bennet began publishing books establishing baselines of what each child should know in each grade, and parents were frantic when they realized their children didn't know a third of that material.

Educational specialists stepped in to halt the parental uproar, and hopefully, the decline in SAT scores. They determined to take a "systems approach" to scholastic reform, and break teaching and learning into scientific units, to be measured, studied, and re-measured again. The qualitative disparity between teachers could be erased by reducing all instruction to formulas.

This may have worked in math, but it has decimated the study of English, history, geography or any other subject based on the written language. Literature and composition are not amenable to formulaic instruction. Nor can we grade literary interpretations or creative writing assignments by a computer-generated answer key.

But, thanks to programs like No Child Left Behind, and standardized tests administered constantly throughout the school year, we try. As a result, even the best and brightest of our students haven't a clue about how to read or write.

The latest tipping point for me came as one of my daughters was reading the instructions from her GRE (graduate school admissions test) preparation book. When writing an essay for the GRE, the manual noted, it was best to copy the introduction and paste it in the space for the conclusion. Any deviation from the introduction would be counted against you.

This drives me nuts, because I have heard it constantly since my oldest daughter hit middle school (although I didn't really believe it was widespread until my children starting attending universities). ALL essays and writing assignments, every single one, must conform to the following formula: an introduction which sets out what you are going to say; three (not two, not five, three) body paragraphs which say what you mean to say; and a conclusion, which repeats the introduction. Papers are graded on the number of words and the ability to repeat yourself endlessly.

I have spent the last 15 years helping my children and all their friends and their friends' relations learn to write. These students are the AP, IB and gifted students of their class. This is what they bring me:

1) run-on sentences;
2) paragraphs that extend for pages;
3) constant repetition in order to make that word count goal;
4) sloppy punctuation (no one grades on this);
5) absence of original thought (if noticed, it is graded down);
6) no transitions between one paragraph and another;
7) organization forced, and not based on content;
8) the first paragraph repeated at the end.

What are these formulaic teachers thinking?

Is there a successful writer any where in the world who copies and pastes his/her introduction and inserts it as his/her conclusion? When students were asssigned to read essays, did the essay authors limit themselves to an introduction, a conclusion, and three body paragraphs? Did Thoreau do this? Did Emerson? Thomas Paine? Thomas Jefferson? Do our modern day essayists (generally found in magazines and newspapers) limit themselves to such a rigid structure? Would anyone read George Will or Paul Krugman if they couldn't produce a well-crafted sentence or an original thought from time to time?

Teaching children to research, synthesize and analyze information, and clearly communicate the results of their study, is time intensive. It takes skill and talent, and is not susceptible to computer models.

It is, however, critical.

Students who learn to read by rote, and write by formula, do not access critical thinking skills. They cannot tell the difference between a scientific theory and an opinion tossed out at the dinner table. They can't distinguish between facts and lies. They will not be able to meet the challenges of climate change, and nuclear non-proliferation, or global poverty, not even to save their lives.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 11:32 AM