Johanna:

I'd like to say that it only applies to overly prescriptive
professors. That was the case in the formation of NCTE: the colleges
(i.e., their English departments) were prescribing which pieces of
literature students must have read in order to be admitted to certain
colleges.

However, the reason I gave up making presentations to high school
teachers was that it seemed as though I couldn't tell them anything
without getting someone's back up. For instance, I often said, in
response to a question, that college professors in general hate the
5-paragraph essay and wish that high school teachers would stop
teaching it. You can imagine how well that little bit of information
went over! I never even got a chance to explain why.

The real problem, of course, is that speakers were usually invited by
administrators or department heads, and your rank-and-file  teachers
had no say in choosing who would speak or whether there should be
in-service training in the first place. So they arrived at the
training session in no mood to have information rained on them from
on high. I couldn't really complain. I felt the same way when I was a
secondary teacher.

Maybe things have changed. I hope so.

Bill

>Thanks to Bill McCleary for his offer to work with a teacher! Great idea!
>
>I'd like to ask for a clarification, though, on this point:
>
>"Nor do I agree that having college professors
>tell pre-college teachers what they want done will be very
>productive. NCTE was, after all, started as a rebellion against
>colleges telling high school teachers what literature they should
>teach."
>
>Does this refer to college teachers in general (all subjects)
>telling high school teachers which language and writing skills
>should be taught in high school? Or is it about college professors
>who are language experts giving guidance on the accuracy and likely
>effectiveness of a language/grammar curriculum?
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Johanna Rubba   Associate Professor, Linguistics
>English Department, California Polytechnic State University
>One Grand Avenue  * San Luis Obispo, CA 93407
>Tel. (805)-756-2184  *  Fax: (805)-756-6374 * Dept. Phone.  756-2596
>* E-mail: [log in to unmask] *      Home page:
>http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
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