Alison: I think your experience is the rule rather than the exception. The
people I have taught with in public schools appear never to have heard of
MLA style, so, of course, they do not teach it. They have these formalaic
rules, such as how many sentences go in a paragraph, how many paragraphs
make an essay, where the thesis statement goes (like you indicated), etc. I
find it all tedious and counterproductive...writing should be fun, creative,
ongoing, and across the curriculum. Unfortunately, most public school
teachers write very little; and when they do, it is stylized and
uninteresting if not downright poorly executed. Helene