TEACHSOC: Re: First day

[Del Thomas Ph. D.]

It is a rather well accepted but untested assertion that, "doing one well depends on doing the other well."  I recall a Terry Gross interview with my old school mate Phillip Roth.  She was following the popular belief about writers and quizzing him about his reading.  It got old and he finally said that he did not do much reading.  Henry David Thoreau argued that one should read something with the same effort and time that it took to write it.  I have seen students who read 200 pages or more for a class and have not been impressed with their "learning"  Of course there are few ways to measure their learning other than writing.  Several years ago I assigned Cannery Row for a social problems class.  One student stated with enthusiasm that this was the first book she had read completly.  As I understand it things have gotten worse. The testing that students do in class produces focused written assignments based on testing the core of sociology....  and there is a very low incidence of plagarism. Also, if there is a deficite that can be measured it is writing.  Writing and rewriting has been shown to be perhaps the most powerful tool we have.  If reading was a powerful learning tool we wouldn't see students use highlighters. Del Michael DeCesare wrote: Del,   Maybe you can elaborate on your comment about reading?   I, like many others on this list, don't use a text in my courses, but the reading I require of my students is by no means light. >From my perspective, a crucial part of a college education--or any formal education, for that matter--is reading.   I also ask my students to write quite a bit, but their writing has to be based on and informed by what they've read. It can't just be their informal musings or personal opinions about some sociological topic--which is what we inevitably get when we don't ask students to read.   In short, I wouldn't rather have EITHER writing OR reading. I want a lot of both. The way I see it, doing one well depends on doing the other well. And doing both well is necessary for better thinking.   Best,   Mike   *********************** Michael DeCesare California State University, Northridge Department of Sociology 336 Santa Susana Hall 18111 Nordhoff Street Northridge, CA 91330-8318 818.677.7198 818.677.2059 (Fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.csun.edu/~mdecesare   ----- Original Message ----- From: Del Thomas Ph. D. To: Richard Hudak Cc: Andi Stepnick ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, August 20, 2005 5:38 PM Subject: TEACHSOC: First day   "The reading is light and no text is used if I can get away with it. I would rather have writing than reading." Del