I'm with Melissa on this. In fact I _do_ sometimes find myself
evaluating colleagues' grammar and spelling, and expect to find them
evaluating my own (for example, in the chapter draft that I sent to the
editors this morning).
It would be convenient to have someone else - high school teachers -
take care of the grammar and spelling abilities of our students, but it
just doesn't happen. I don't think this reflects poorly on those
teachers - they're asked to do so much more than they were in days of
old. I think it's also probably true that quite a bit of the current
problem with college students' academic preparation comes from the fact
that we no longer have the selection bias we used to have: people in
general (and not just the most academically strong) are expected to go
to college now (or as they'd say it, "...nowadays" <grin>). We don't
live in that golden age that we remember, and so in fact part of being a
college teacher means teaching what we think of as basic writing skills.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
Melissa A. St Pierre wrote:
Hi all,
I tend to disagree with Joan and Patrick on this one...would you want
poor spelling from a future colleague or your next administrative
assistant? As an adjunct instructor for a College Skills on-line
course, the greatest problem I see in the on-line classroom is students
being much too informal in the discussion boards, as if they were
instant messaging their friends. Our view on this is that if our job is
to prepare them for future employment, I do think we need to emphasize
correct grammar and spelling.
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