It seems to me as though math teachers constantly have to prove why you should be in their class. For the past several years, I’ve gotten carefully thought-out spiels about the applications of trigonometry in the real world or the cognitive benefits of solving complicated equations. But there’s more to it than that. The most important skill math classes aim to teach is something more universal than geometric proofs, more integral to our introduction into the adult world: creative problem solving. We aren’t solving systems of equations so we can know how many apples and how many oranges to buy with twenty-seven dollars; we’re solving them so we can know how to solve the problems the world throws at us.
So, this got me thinking about what each of the core classes are meant to teach you. For science, it’s how to observe, investigate, and deduce—this is relevant for doing research, being a conscious consumer, and discerning real information from fake. For social studies, it’s contextualization: learning how to zoom out on smaller details and place them in the bigger picture. The least intuitive one, for me, is English. English classes are as much about teaching you how to use the English language as they are about teaching you how to follow the rules.
By the time most American students reach high school, they know how to speak, read, and write English. Granted, these skills could always use strengthening; it’s easy to see how students’ average ability to use English has deteriorated over the past few decades. But unlike the material in other language classes, we actually spend very little time learning how English works—if we already know instinctively how to use it, why bother learning the specifics of grammar? Nor do we focus on vocabulary, as we’re kind of just expected to expand our lexicons by osmosis. If we’re not learning grammar or vocabulary, the things typically taught in language classes, what are we learning instead? We’re learning how to follow instructions.
Consider any prompt an English class has assigned you, and the things which have come with it. Often, along with the actual question you’re supposed to be answering, you get a checklist of requirements to meet, a rubric of grading standards, and maybe an outline for how the piece should be written. The entire process is very structured—you write the sentences you need to check every box on the prompt blurb, format your piece to the societal standards set for you, complete the outline if it helps you or if your teacher requires you to do so. Nowhere in the task does your grade rely on well-crafted text or creative expression, except perhaps vaguely in the rubric. It’s all about following a very specific set of instructions. You’re being taught how to follow the rules.
Granted, it’s hard to make a case for grading based on technical word-smith-ery, creativity of writing, or originality of thought. Those standards leave a lot of room for subjectivity, leaving graders liable to accusations of bias and making grades unfortunately dependent on how the grader is feeling that day. When it comes to grading a piece of writing out of one hundred, the only way to do it is usually using very objective, structured, rules-based standards.
Herein lies the greatest issue with English classes. The nature of English assignments promotes checking boxes and discourages creative thought, and this comes directly at odds with the perceived point of English as a subject. If we want to teach students to write thoughtfully, beautifully, and creatively, we cannot keep using the system we’re using. Most importantly, if we want to raise the next generation of adults to be motivated to write, to enjoy the process of it, we cannot keep utilizing policies which conflate the act of writing with monotony, thoughtlessness, and dull, rule-following repetition. We need classes which encourage students to write as they want and express themselves creatively, either through homework assignments by completion or deliberate, feedback-driven writing workshops in English classes, or both. One easy way to do this is to make English electives, which are more compatible with promoting creative thought, accessible from earlier on. Or, for instance, we could make ninth and tenth grade English classes pass/fail, or take other measures to deemphasize grades in earlier English classes.
Why do we keep English classes as they are, then? The answer is simple. Just as society needs a workforce which can problem-solve, as they learned to in math classes, society needs a workforce which can follow the rules. Through English classes, we teach people that those who follow the rules go further than those who desist. This is how we keep society ordered. Then, as a side effect, we also encourage homogeneity and suppress creative thought. And thus, this is also how we keep society stifled.
I digress. Regardless of why English classes are the way they are, if they’re not teaching students to be creative, write with care, and enjoy writing (or at least not dread it), then they’re not preparing students sufficiently to be adults. It’s not impossible to provide English classes which promote creativity instead of suppressing it; to do that, we just have to look up West Hill, at the sort of writing education that LACS provides. We have to make more enriching English classes more accessible from earlier on, so that students don’t lose the sort of passion that many still have at the end of elementary school. We have to provide stronger writing extracurriculars, like elementary and middle school newspapers or literary magazines.
English classes have so much potential to cultivate creativity instead of extinguishing it. We can do better. We deserve better.
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