In recent weeks, I have read personal opinion pieces from two major news sources that raised eyebrows. Specifically, my eyebrows. While one writer expressed her opinion that we need to bring home economics back as a key component of the school curriculum, the other writer suggested we simply stop teaching writing.
That strange feeling in the upper part of your face? That’s your eyebrows arching like the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri. I hope I’m not giving you a headache here, but each writer had unique insight and a provocative argument to make, and both writers knew what they were talking about. They weren’t just veteran teachers, they were well-seasoned veterans.
The argument in favor of redeploying the home economics curriculum cited its ability to bring students a renewed understanding of proper nutrition (essential in these times of ever-worsening childhood obesity) and teach young people the basic principles of money and domestic management.
The argument against continuing to teach writing to our young people was equally provocative. The writer suggested that, in our common quest to help simplify the art of writing well-structured essays, we had in fact made written reasoning skills impossible to develop. Writing, the author suggested, was no longer an art form blending reasoning with vocabulary, but a series of structured steps that eliminated deeper thought. Much as standardized testing might cause educators to “teach to the test,” writing instruction caused educators to “teach to the format,” not the overall skill.
As a writer, former writing teacher, and lover of words, this latter editorial struck a nerve, as you can imagine.
So we have, in one case, a former teacher suggesting we need to reconnect to a long-forgotten subject area because of how much it will help the lifelong development of our nation’s future generations. In the other case, we have a former teacher arguing that we need to disconnect from our current teaching practice and go back to someplace near square one to get to the core of writing instruction.
In either case, we have the free exchange of important ideas and valuable insights from educators who survived life in the trenches. And you, dear reader, are engaged in the good work of education at this very moment. Share your thoughts with us and with each other.
Take a moment and write a few words about education today. You’ll feel a lot better, and your voice is important in the dialogue.