Melinda

Dear Jane, et al,

This is such a Great example of why school sucks. The
often successful attempts to turn the written word
into drudgery just burn me up.

I am with you Jane.

I was the proverbial Teacher's Pet until Middle
School, when I realized the whole scraping and bowing
down deal wasn't for me.

Then, the grade depended on whether or not I enjoyed
the subject matter. I could always manage A's with
little study time,(public school), and seemed to be
able to get a C just by showing up and doing the
in-class stuff. I was Lucky, it was always easy for
me. Though it wasn't very nurturing, at least I
wasn't Tortured by the "failure" label as so many are.

I managed to get the "3.5" formula down well enough to
CLEP out of the first year of college English. But,
the lasting impact of having my high school work
meaninglessly criticized lead me to actually alter my
exact course of study as to avoid having to write
Research papers.

My senior year high school English teacher was an
ex-nun. We had to write on Hamlet and I chose to come
at it from a Feminist point of view. How did their
view of their own power/lack thereof effect the
outcomes, etc...........

That idiot teacher could do no better than mark up my
paper for "incorrect sentence structure". Makes you
wonder if any of these teachers actually consider the
merits of REAL Literature, with all it's rule breaking
and original perspective. Or, do they actually Enjoy
the crap examples in grammar text books?

It has taken me many years to see it for the
inconsequential pursuit that it is. Making grades and
appeasing the nonsensical standards of the modern day
classroom is beyond useless. It's character damaging.
It's soul shrinking. If addressed specifically, much
of it ought to be found Criminal as it certainly
illustrates cruel and unusual punishment for so many.

Most of what infuriates me is what it steals form us
all: Joyful Readers, Curious Thinkers, Inspired
Writers.

I am now 11 years away from formal education. I have
just begun writing for pleasure. It is a talent that
I am only now beginning to explore developing. I am
37 years old. How far behind has all that coerced
composition put me? I will never be able to answer
that. But I am certain that the passion I have for
the written word was long delayed due to those years
of forced writing.

Shame on them.

How can the goal of institutionalized coercive
education be seen as anything short of diminishing
humanity. Controlling thought. Creating a submissive
populace.

The results are Undeniable.

-Melinda




> From: jsutfran@...
> Subject: Re: Interesting essay - vent
>
> HI all -
> Thanks Pam for passing along that essay....it
> stirred up a long ago
> hurt....In 5th grade we had to write an essay about
> a voyage across the
> ocean....like a 13 yo boy who signed on to work on a
> ship for his passage to
> the new country or something....I started the essay
> like this: (can you
> believe I can still remember it!!)
>
> " I don' t know why I did it, but I did. I signed
> up to work on the xxxx
> ship so that I can get to America." (something in
> there about being afraid
> too)
>
> I felt very creative starting it out like a journal
> entry.....I was pretty
> thrilled with my idea.....
>
> My favorite teacher of all time SQUASHED it! Told
> me that it was not
> appropriate.....totally shocked me with her red pen
> editing and criticizing
> my creativity!
>
> Later that year, she used one of my writing samples
> on an overhead to point
> out errors.....she didn't show my name but I was
> horrified.....here I was
> walking around thinking I knew something about
> writing! I read A LOT and I
> remember specifically that I was playing with a
> style that I had noticed in a
> book....ugh!
>
> Into college, I felt unsure of my writing
> ability.....taking risks with my
> writing became very difficult and I mostly stayed on
> the safe side in high
> school.....my parents use a different language so I
> felt that I was
> rightfully unsure since I was using a 'second
> language' so if others thought
> my writing wasn't good, it probably isn't....
>
> even now, I feel that I should edit what I post.....
>
> ugh.....
>
> and then there are all those formulas for poetry,
> too....
>
> okay, nuff venting! thanks for listening!
> Jane
>
>

=====
: D Melinda

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Sharon Rudd

Perhaps your creativity hasn't been ruined or even
delayed. Perhaps it has only matured.
Good Luck!!
Sharon of the Swamp


I
> have
> just begun writing for pleasure. It is a talent
> that
> I am only now beginning to explore developing. I am
> 37 years old. How far behind has all that coerced
> composition put me?

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