Competent Writing Skills (was Re: teacher rants)

[MASCARO at humnet.ucla.edu]

Good comments on my rant.  I did't mean to imply rules mean nothing, and
I certainly help my students w/ mechanics (in office conferences usually). 

I also was much too simplistic in how I separated form and content in my
post.  I hope I know better.

 My beef has to do with a rules-oriented approach to the teaching and evaluation
 of student writing, and to a certain kind of all-too-common, often
 elitist droning in English departments about the teddible state
 of affairs, an entire generation of illiterates!

My real bile is towards the culture at large which seems to be hell-bent on
 stifling creative and critical thought;  academia, which IMO could be a 
counterforce, makes the problem worse by blaming the victims--the
students who've already been cheated out of a decent grounding in thinking 
analytically and using writing as a mode of learning--by bewailing
 their error rates.

Also makes nice fodder for right-wing maniacs who do things like destroy
 Head Start programs because, well, y'know Bob, those little, eh, those 
whatchamacallems?  No matter what you do for 'em, they still don't want to
improve their stock portfolios or anything.  Hopless case.  Time for a
 Capital Gains cut to BOOST the ECONOMY.

Call me the education president!

john (spinning hopelessly out of control) m