Ian #6

I think what's been trickiest for me to express to students is, as Bean describes it, the "believing and doubting game." Many of the students I've worked with at the WC seem to take published work as law - what that author says goes. There is only believing, no doubting. And while I do believe publication means something (assuming the publication is reputable), I've tried to emphasize to my students that just because something is in print doesn't mean you can't disagree with some, or even most, or even ALL of it. I think, in part, students' willingness to automatically accept the information contained in handouts is itself a symptom of the time crunch kids are under. Particularly if they've already had to do work just to ascertain a content level of understanding from the reading, why spend MORE time deciding if you agree or disagree with that ascertained content? I also wonder if the reputation of canonization sometimes hinders students' confidence with critical engagement. I remember feeling, as a sophomore undergraduate, that I had no business critiquing a work as mythologized as, say, Pride and Prejudice. Even now, I occasionally wonder what exactly makes me qualified to suggest change to, say, Joan Didion.

 One strategy I've experimented with is to tell students to read an essay like it's an argument they're having with their parents. I find this removes the layer of mystique that a !!published writer!! has, and also makes the students more passionate about finding gaps in the written argument. It erases the layer of cold remove that an essay can sometimes have and makes it more personal, more readily imperfect (who among us doesn't think their parents are imperfect?), and thus more open to critique.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 3, 2018 at 11:46 AM

    I think it's interesting to reframe students' reticence to insert themselves into the conversation of a reading as a lack of confidence (ie what could I possibly have to say to Jane Austen or Angela Davis?). This is why I found the chapter section about the inherent bias/positionality of writers very helpful--no matter how talented or erudite, every writer can only speak from their place in the world, and we have the right to speak back.

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