Application essays and college writing

bethievt
Sun, 25 Feb 2007 09:48:42 +0000

I think my son has been well prepared by his public HS teachers. AP English in junior year with a GREAT, very demanding teacher was invaluable. This year, he took a half-year creative writing course—loved it–and is now in Major American Lit. My husband and I attended the first class of the semester (shadow day) and it was clear the teacher was going to go for a “relating literature to our personal life experiences” approach, which I think is a highly valid one, though some don’t like it. To me, anything that helps us to better understand ourselves and others and to express our feelings is good. The boys who don’t want to do it may be the ones who need it the most. On another thread in Parent Cafe we’re talking about emotional meltdowns and burnouts in early college years. Some parents have noted that the counseling experience has helped their kids to be more emotionally expressive.

I guess I went a bit OT here. Haha–that’s never happened before–but I sometimes think parents are short-sighted when they criticize teachers for bringing real life into the classroom. “What does THAT have to do with learning to write (or read or whatever)?”. It has everything to do with everything imo.