Bait/Rebait: Teachers Should Be Required to Write for Publication

Abstract

In Saturday Night Fever, the Bee Gees's hit song Stayin' Alive elicits strong sentiment for surviving difficulties, for staying afloat in life's rough waters, for not scuttling across the floors of silent seas as does Eliot's J. Alfred Prufrock. Writing for publication can evoke in English teachers a similar sense of staying alive, of not drowning in the sea of day-to-day detail, academic paperwork, and administrative chores. Unfortunately, publish or perish has been used only to describe college professors who, if they don't publish, suffer from withheld pay increases, nonpromotions, and possibly denial of tenure. In my view, however, publish or perish refers primarily to individuals, not to level or rank. Thus, any English teacher who does not write for publication is not alive in the field. As the person who stops moving in deep water will drown, so the English teacher who does not maintain publication activity will intellectually and emotionally perish. Submitting two articles a year may seem awesome; however, considering both time and opportunities available, it is not. It means only one piece per semester, not including summer, when most teachers have time. If English teachers use the time to digest experiences, to read, and to create classroom techniques, they will also accumulate the knowledge and insight needed to generate publishable materials. Like Henry James's house of fiction, the house of classroom theory and practic has many window , enough f r every view. English teachers may locate these windows by exploring such res urces as the Directory of Small Magazine Pres Editors and Publishers, Writer's Market, the Directory of Publishing Opportunities, as well as bibliographies found in journals like the one for composition te chers in English Journal, January 1980.