What I Learned at School

Abstract

WHEN FALL COMES and school year begins, I'm sometimes plagued by temporary friskiness that tends to cause me some trouble before it subsides. This friskiness, think, rises from two sources: part of it is left over from summer when for moment or two I'm led to think that can really be teacher, chiefly because there are not any committee meetings in summer; part of it is left over from old times when thought September 1 was New Year's Day because soon school would start and Sears Roebuck catalogue would come. At any rate, am sometimes troubled by this coltish vigor before it wanes to be replaced by decrepitude that is my more normal wont. This year, it led me to make special mess of things. In an excess of zeal during first meeting of my freshman composition class, vowed that would write an essay every time they did and that would turn my essays over to them as they turned theirs in to me. Once had said that, was led by fear, desperation, and smidgin of honor to do what had said would do. Now, nine essays and some short written exercises later, term has ended, and am blurred and fuzzy around edges. Still, want to do two things: want to report what think learned while was writing essays with my students, and want to exhibit last of these essays as one way of thinking about composition class. When try to tally things learned while writing essays, total is not impressive, but what's there is sufficiently troublesome, perplexing, confusing, instructive, and vexatious to bring me up short and to cast doubt upon certain assumptions about freshman composition. 1. learned that writing out one's own assignments is marvelous corrective to any tendency one might have for using merely habitual assignments or for witlessly making thoughtless or stupid assignments. 2. With some of arguments and assumptions that undergird freshman composition am familiar. know that the ability to write literate essay is hallmark of educated person. know that a competent student ought to be able to produce decent piece of writing on call. But also learned that o write nine essays in semester of fourteen weeks (I'm leaving out holiday weeks and like) is task very nearly not doable. thought for while that would have to give myself an I for course. I'll return to this item bit later.