Two hundred years ago, the Industrial Revolution began and with this, the need to convert droves of people into efficient, obedient, and educated workers arose. No longer would the vast majority of the population be farmers; instead they would provide the labor that has led to the creation of the modern world as we know it.
Although the world we currently live in has changed in almost every aspect, the education system has yet to catch up.
I believe that—to actually provide a quality education—the education system must release the stranglehold it has on every student and allow them to experience an education system that is truly unique to them.
This article is specifically focused on ELA class as an example.
To prove my point, I will provide my personal experience and gripes with the education system. This is anecdotal evidence and therefore biased but it’s my article and I can do what I want with it.
Gripe one:
I love reading, writing, and thinking critically about texts—so then why is ELA class so dull and underwhelming?
To provide some background, I have read tons of books across all sorts of genres. Reading is one of my favorite activities and I have several tall stacks of books I’ve read lying on my dresser. In addition to this, I also really enjoy writing—I even won an award for it.
In spite of this, I often find myself dreading the assignments given to me and find the general type of assignments uninteresting. Don’t get me wrong, all of my high school ELA teachers have been fantastic along with 83.3% of the other ELA teachers I’ve had, have been fantastic teachers—this pattern spans across each year of ELA. So then why do I often find myself not looking forward to the class?
Well, for starters, each time I get assigned a quick write for a book I did not choose to read I get one step closer to dropping out of high school and becoming a self-employed day trader.
Having to stop and write something every three chapters of a book makes reading a much less enjoyable experience. Everyone reads differently and for different reasons. I, personally, do not want to have to find text evidence, cite accurate page numbers for said evidence, and provide reasoning to prove a claim that I did not choose nor care about.
If anything, this makes my comprehension of the book worse by forcing my understanding of a novel into a narrow view point chosen by someone else. I want to interpret a book in my own special way—not someone else’s.
I understand the point, teachers need to make sure that you’re actually reading the book. But surely there are better ways to do that.
For example, ELA teachers could allow students the freedom of picking their own prompts. Personally, I have found that when I get to choose the claim for a writing assignment it becomes an actually enjoyable and challenging experience—not just another assignment to formulaically complete.
The formulaic completion of assignments leads into my next point.
Gripe two:
I’m not becoming a better writer through ELA assignments—but, again, I love writing.
A few times in my life I have been inspired to truly challenge myself and create a piece of work that I am proud of. These episodes involve intensive research, brainstorming, and passion for whatever I’m writing.
During these times—when I’m challenging myself—I’m learning new writing techniques, new grammar rules, and how to more effectively prove my claim through evidence.
The writing assignments in ELA classes, though, are—more often than not—the exact opposite.
The story is as old as time itself: I get assigned a 5 paragraph essay with a generic writing prompt chosen by the teacher about character traits or something of the like. I painstakingly find all the correct text evidence, cite it with the correct page numbers, add a few sentences of reasoning after the evidence, and then have the conclusion paragraph connect to my claim in the first paragraph.
The thing is, I feel like I’ve been writing the same essay for years!
While a final writing assignment after a completion of a class book is undeniably necessary, writing basically the same essay each time I complete a class book neither makes me a better writer or teaches me any new writing techniques.
I strongly believe that ELA teachers should be more open-ended with the ways their students can complete writing assignments.
If I really want to, let me write a series of poems about the characters or the setting of the story! While it may seem counterintuitive, I would definitely become a better writer because I have next to no experience writing poetry, whereas completing another bland generic essay does not make me any better!
Truly, we should be letting students experiment and explore new mediums of writing instead of doing the same thing again and again.
As an ELA teacher, why not let a student write about a book they’re reading in class on a topic they actually care about? If a student cares about what they’re writing about, they’ll put more effort into it! Let the student write an essay where they analyze what they specifically liked in the book—not what someone else thinks they should write about.
Instead of writing what feels like the 50th character analysis, let me write about how the author used to small details to create a truly immersive world or how the book critiques topics like selfishness, greed, or exploitation.
Personally, I care much more about the messages conveyed in books rather than the characters themselves. This is why I would prefer writing such topics—I would actually enjoy it!
In addition to all of this, true growth as a writer comes from writing more long-term type projects. While writing an essay about a novel you’ve completed in class teaches some basic skills, it’s surface level. Having a few days in class to write five paragraphs teaches students to just study the rubric and write the essay as if they are just checking items off a list.
Great writers are not confined to such short and arbitrary deadlines—they have time to breathe, innovate, and explore new ways to improve.
Writing is an art form and these types of dull, repetitive assignments reduce that to just a means to an end (a grade in this case).
To give some credit, ELA teachers do usually—not always—allow students to have some freedom in the topic they choose to write about. A good ELA teacher should allow students to choose their own topics.
Coming Clean
While it may—after reading this article—seem like I hate ELA class, I really don’t.
The headline of this article is merely clickbait.
Most of my favorite teachers have been ELA teachers. They are truly remarkable people who care a lot about each of their students and their classes have been some of the most fun in my experience. The scathing critiques I presented in this article originate from my very strong opinions about reading and writing and, therefore, I put ELA as a subject under a microscope.
This is just what I think would need to change for ELA class to create truly great writers—not writers who just do the bare minimum.
Small side note, the writing experience in Journalism class is awesome.
