Deborah Mutnick’s “On the Academic Margins: Basic Writing Pedagogy" was a wonderful article, and, in the opening paragraph, I was hooked. The language was powerful and rhetorical. In the opening lines, Mutnick states, “Basic writing reflects both this country’s promise and its deepening contradictions. It signifies struggles for inclusion, diversity, and equal opportunity; debates over standards and linguistic hegemony; the exploitation of faculty and staff on the academic margins; and the policies that opened and now threaten to close higher education’s doors to masses of people.” The quote allowed me to ponder on the importance of basic writing skills. I have mixed views in a sense; however, I do take a more liberal approach.
Colleges and universities have routinely eliminated remedial courses, and, in turn, the student who is poor and without many resources – tutors, knowledgeable parents, or caring teachers – will get lost in the system. A few months ago, I was listening to Byron Allen (I believe that is his name) on Book TV on CSPAN. He recounted his experiences in college. He stuttered. He was poor, and he was black. His mother worked three jobs to support the single parent home. At an early age, he was misdiagnosed as mentally challenged.
He recalled being discouraged from attending college; however, he did well in sports. His freshman year, an English teacher, as he states “virtually destroyed him” and his confidence.” He failed his basic English course the first semester. He could not write well. He took the same professor the next semester and was advised to give up. He just wasn’t smart enough. He could not write. While sobbing in the court guard, another professor stopped by and asked, "What was wrong." He stated she was plainly dressed – like a janitor would be – but she told him to stop by her office. He did, and now he is a wealthy journalist, sportscaster.
Those stories (and there are plenty like them) are why I believe colleges and universities should maintain some type of policy that allows those who are destined by “society” to fail – to instead succeed. For me, I want to help students succeed, not write them off as inferior or too dumb. I will not address the socio-political aspects of this. The blog is not equipped for the discourse or the path I would take.
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I agree with you that the elimination of basic writing courses is a dangerous path for universities to take. It seems important for universities to evaluate what their goals are and who they are intending to serve. Harvard, on one hand, is an elite university, so I could understand their elimination of basic writing courses. A school like UGA or Georgia State that is larger and serves a more (academcially) diverse population would probably want to keep its basic writing courses. Of course, this idea trends toward the possibility of widening separation between private and public (elite and non elite) universities...so the issue of basic writing courses is quite a slippery slope.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting. I agree that "basic writing courses is quite a slippery slope."
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