Politics, & a bit on language
I find myself in a very difficult position right now. I have finally begun to come into my own in teaching business writing. My students this summer are great, and the work we've done in only the first week is better than anything I've participated in as a teacher. I signed up to teach Rhetoric next semester because I felt I wasn't able to go where I wanted to with business writing.
Well, because it is my first semester teaching Rhetoric, even though I've taught for 2 years and taken a ton of courses on composition (since Writing Studies is my focus), the department still feels I need a lot of guidance in my teaching. They're willing to allow me to have my own coursepack (although they want to "supervise" the readings), but they're forcing me to incorporate Writing Analytically and a handbook. Well, that's basically going to cost my students more money, force me to teach something I'm not comfortable with, and make less room in my syllabus for the things I actually want to teach. I had planned to teach in the lab and teach web design, and had already put in a book order to require my students to buy a Dreamweaver book. I don't want to require them to buy all this. It's very expensive and pointless. And it's frustrating the heck out of me.
I like this quote:
Well, because it is my first semester teaching Rhetoric, even though I've taught for 2 years and taken a ton of courses on composition (since Writing Studies is my focus), the department still feels I need a lot of guidance in my teaching. They're willing to allow me to have my own coursepack (although they want to "supervise" the readings), but they're forcing me to incorporate Writing Analytically and a handbook. Well, that's basically going to cost my students more money, force me to teach something I'm not comfortable with, and make less room in my syllabus for the things I actually want to teach. I had planned to teach in the lab and teach web design, and had already put in a book order to require my students to buy a Dreamweaver book. I don't want to require them to buy all this. It's very expensive and pointless. And it's frustrating the heck out of me.
I like this quote:
In academic circles, both in the sphere of teaching and that of writing, there has been little effot made to utilize black vernacular--or for that matter, any language other than standard English. (171)I wonder what would happen if I started submitting papers where every other line had a Yiddish word in it. I wonder what would happen if I broke into full paragraphs of computer languages. I wonder how folks would respond to even the use of language from different disciplines within their own discipline. Do we care to take the time to learn the subtleties beyond our language control? Wouldn't we grow a lot as a society that way? Although academia, really, is not about growing as a society. It's about control, as evidenced by the politics I am currently encountering. What would it matter if my department actually trusted me to teach this course? I would be a happier, better teacher, and would be able to bring out happiness & betterness in my students as a result. The only thing that might suffer is their egos. What a bummer.
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