The History of Composition

Even though your teaching philosophy essay may not focus on composition, specifically, which ideas from the history of composition are influencing your ideas about what good teaching is the most? Include direct quotations.

I know y'all are used to this, but here it goes again: I think a little bit of all the ideas together makes a good teacher. Some specific perspectives of the history of composition did appeal to me, though. I've always leaned heavily on literature as an important means of composition teaching. I always held the idea that if one is exposed to a lot of different pieces of literature, one will thus be exposed to different styles and voices. But, more importantly, one can see how a proper sentence is supposed to be written as far as punctuation, grammar, mechanics, spelling, etc. I read a lot growing up, and that attributed to the grasp I had of grammar and mechanics. So, unlike the progressive educators who "sought to free writing instruction from the service of canonical literary study", there should still be a bridge between literature and composition. Maybe it's because of the curriculum in high school that I got used to as a teacher, but I think there's an important link between the two. I also like that Harvard had this "elitist" requirement for English composition. I've always been a proponent of good grammar. Who wants to read something that's full of errors? If the author didn't want to put forth the effort to proofread and edit, what makes him think he's an expert on what he's saying, much less that I'm going to want to read it? There are standards of professionalism for a reason. So, in the 60s, when the search for "a pedagogy to help students find personal writing styles that were honest and unconstrained by conventions" came to be, I probably would have had to twist my own arm to get on that boat. Not that I don't believe in voice or personal writing styles. That's all fine and dandy, especially when taking the audience into account. But, I still think conventions of some sort need to be embraced. As a grader, I have found it extremely difficult to slog my way through papers that are so engulfed in errors that I can't even get to the point the author is trying to make.

I believe everyone who wants an education deserves one. But, I also believe that a lot of the responsibility of pursuing that education lies in the hands of the student. So, if the conventions of my audience, my career, my world dictate that I produce to a certain standard, I'm going to make sure that I write/compose to that standard.