Even though I don’t aspire to be a teacher, or to teach Freshman Comp courses these articles have opened my eyes to a reality I had not fathomed during my time in composition courses. Just as I had mentioned in my pervious post, teachers and first year composition professor have to take in account national and state standards and the philosophy they are using to properly instruct students.
Richard Fulkerson mentioned the four philosophies best in his article Composition Theory in the Eighties. Formalist, Expressive, Mimetic and Rhetorical philosophy. As I began to delve into the article I found myself aligning with the Expressive and Rhetorical philosophies. Maybe this is due to my creative disposition. I as a self acclaimed poet, value self expression, authenticity, voice, and self growth [Elizabeth McPherson called it discovery](412).
The content of composition is the writer-as he reveals his self, thoughtfully and feelingly, in his own language, with his own voice. …. We raise questions that we hope will help our students analyze and understand their own lives, their own beliefs, their own
-Lou Kelly *quoted by Fulkerson from From Dialogue to Discourse: An Open Approach to Competence and Creativity (1972)*
As for the rhetorical Philosophy it aligns similarly to my creative disposition. On one end the, we (I’m using the all encompassing we for all creatives) create to say something: Commentary on political stances, beauty of nature, the depth of loss, the yearning for companionship, the fires of love, etc. This can be such a great release, but we also create for our audience whom ever that may be. We internalize their feedback and move our words to reach them better.
I don’t see my self teaching, children, young adults, or college students, but those who do have one hell a journey all with the same end. Is there a proper way go about teaching composition students if it all leads towards the same goal? This [constant] lack of uniformity throughout decades with the same end, reminded me of a the ending lines of poem [shocker].
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost The Road Not Taken.
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