I have darn good classes this semester. Please understand that the following comment is not meant to disparage, in any way, the fine students enrolled in my composition courses. I like all of the classes thusfar, though we're still in the honeymoon portion of the semester where they think I'm funny and effective. Sometimes the tone of the class changes after the second essay, when they realize I'm actually quite a nut for conciseness and precision. Still, we're having fun and learning about critical thinking (fingers crossed!) while devouring our textbook.
All of the classes have been discussing argument essay clusters from this textbook. In one of yesterday's classes, the article cluster concerned military recruitment and the draft. The essays represent a wide variety of views, a little Donald Rumsfeld, a little Anna Quindlen, etc. I thought the discussion was on life support by the end, however, as I was basically asking students to fill in the blanks, desperately trying to coax observations from them. Students did a good job with summary but were struggling with synthesis.
After class, one student stayed behind to clarify an assignment. She seemed worried. "These people are so intellectual," she said.
This? Class?
To paraphrase Daniel Patrick Moynihan: defining intellectualism down.
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