Russell 151-170

I am going to take things on a personal tangent for this journal entry. In Russell’s essay, he talks English as no longer being thought of as a skill that takes “continuous development” and is instead seen as, “ a set of  generalizable, mechanical ‘skills’ independent of disciplinary knowledge, learned once and for all at an early age” (153). Russell also describes the common practice giving adjuncts and graduate students the responsibility of teaching writing classes. Naturally this notion is personal for me. As an English major, I acknowledge that writing is an essential discipline. Every semester I genuinely hope that my students take away at least one thing from the class that makes their writing a little bit better. However I find myself stuck in a difficult situation. Because I understand how important writing is, I am somewhat confused why universities across the country are delegating composition classes to people who are still practicing the skill themselves. This is not meant to insult my fellow graduate students, they are wonderful instructors. But my already shaky self confidence is even further unstable by this practice. How do I know that I am suitable to teach such an important discipline, especially after reading Russell’ article? I admit when I was first accepted to graduate school and I was asked to teach freshman composition, I was stunned. I couldn’t believe that they wanted me to take on such a big responsibility. Composition is a muscle that students will exercise and flex throughout their academic careers and beyond, I can only hope that I have been able to instruct my past and present students well enough that they are adequate writers.

So what I would like to discuss in class if there is time, is how would we go about fixing this practice? Freshman composition is a required course at most (if not all) universities, so there are many sections of it each semester. I’m not suggesting graduate students shouldn’t teach anymore, I think it is necessary for graduate students to do, both for the students they teach and for themselves as academics and professionals. But, what changes can be made? What could be done to change what Russell sees as the current situation in English departments? Are the changes within the English department or would they need to be more inclusive of the university’s structure?