When I first started teaching college courses in the evening, I was desperate enough for money that I taught classes at more than one school. There was a stark contrast between the two. One had a friendly and welcoming staff, a shorter term period, and composition classes that included literature. The other had a staff that rarely responded to my questions, paid better per term but with longer terms, and had composition classes filled with "real world" readings. There was no question as to which one I preferred.
A couple of years after devoting myself wholly to the first institution, it decided to change the policy of its composition courses. Too many instructors devoted too much of the course to teaching literature rather than teaching composition through literature. It's a subtle, albeit profound, difference. To my horror, the sins of the few brought about a change in policy and literature was dropped from our composition classes. I say "to my horror" because I had seen so many students open their minds as they were exposed to literature in my courses. Many had only been exposed to great literature in the spoon-fed manner now common in so many middle and high schools. For older students, this was their first reintroduction to literature in decades, and they found that life had refined their tastes to readings they had long discarded. Unfortunately, my concerns were not enough to stop the machine, and literature has been removed from most of our students' lives.
Exposing people to great literature expands their minds and their vocabulary. It gives them avenues of thinking that are otherwise unexplored. It helps them to think of the greater world around them, to look a viewpoints other than those with which they are already too familiar.
We need literature, grand literature, in our lives lest they become pale imitations of lives. We need literature to invigorate our senses and imaginations. This cold, factory-like approach to teaching reading and writing rather than composition and literature is taking the soul out of our collegiate degrees.
A couple of years after devoting myself wholly to the first institution, it decided to change the policy of its composition courses. Too many instructors devoted too much of the course to teaching literature rather than teaching composition through literature. It's a subtle, albeit profound, difference. To my horror, the sins of the few brought about a change in policy and literature was dropped from our composition classes. I say "to my horror" because I had seen so many students open their minds as they were exposed to literature in my courses. Many had only been exposed to great literature in the spoon-fed manner now common in so many middle and high schools. For older students, this was their first reintroduction to literature in decades, and they found that life had refined their tastes to readings they had long discarded. Unfortunately, my concerns were not enough to stop the machine, and literature has been removed from most of our students' lives.
Exposing people to great literature expands their minds and their vocabulary. It gives them avenues of thinking that are otherwise unexplored. It helps them to think of the greater world around them, to look a viewpoints other than those with which they are already too familiar.
We need literature, grand literature, in our lives lest they become pale imitations of lives. We need literature to invigorate our senses and imaginations. This cold, factory-like approach to teaching reading and writing rather than composition and literature is taking the soul out of our collegiate degrees.
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