Blog Post 1

Writing a curriculum that has too many rules and procedures to follow like MLA format can cause a “lack of rhetorical self-consciousness” (Russell) and can be detrimental to the kids learning because it takes away their voice and it does not let them write the way they want to write. It does not demonstrate the knowledge that the students have, and yet the schools are fully committed to teaching students to write in these ways that kill their creative freedom. Their voice in their writing is becoming less and less as they progress in school and get older. The reliance that the American school system has on book learning has always been fascinating to me.

Teaching writing through a textbook and using rules that have been preset for us is not the best way to set students up for success. Of course, the 5 paragraph essay comes to mind because we discussed it last week and that it is only invented to grade faster. The history of rhetoric was fascinating to read about because it just goes to show how different the American school system is from different countries, and why we continue to fall behind and are not as smart as people from other parts of the world. Textbooks can certainly be a good tool for teachers to use, but using them as a crutch and your primary way of teaching is doing the students a disservice. We need to stop taking students’ voices away with such strict writing rules and take the teaching of rhetoric more seriously from a younger age.

Related posts:

Exploring the Roots and Evolution of Composition and Rhetoric Studies in America Writing the Curriculum by the Block Rhetoric (Can’t Raise the Dead) “Shaping Tools: Textbooks and the Development of Composition-Rhetoric”