Language of Classrooms

I feel as though the writing and reading that I was asked to do throughout primary and secondary school was pretty standard. When I say standard, I mean in a way that it seems like I read all the supposed classics. I always read the books that were necessary to building a literacy foundation, which was according other people’s decisions. In school we were always expected to have certain reading done in a certain amount of time, and be able to write critically of what we have read. It was implied by the teacher’s that I had that each assignment was necessary to building skills on top of one another to achieve a certain level of literary acuity. As Rose writes about his difficulties with language it seems as though his troubles come from outside of school, because the expectations from school life and home life seem to differ greatly. Bridging the gap between those two can be hard.

The expectations that teachers have of students can be complicated. I remember in high-school there was a reading program that was implemented that was called SSR. This was known as Silent Student Reading, and for fifteen minutes a day there would be a time where everyone in the school was required to sit and read a book of their choice. This was easily faked. Students including myself at times would just sit there and stare at the pages, or students would end up putting their heads down sleepily. This was only made possible because we were not asked to do anything with what we were reading, just to have a book during the time we needed it, if only to avoid a detention. They expected us to do something, at times we faked performing the task, and school went on. The teacher’s expectations had been met by the students under false pretenses.

On almost all occasions in school we were asked to communicate with language academically. For me, this can cause certain problems. Day after day of critically thinking about language and literature can become tedious, as I can’t recall any moments in secondary school where we were asked to creatively come up with a new concept or idea on how to use language. It seems that the importance of creativity slowly fades in the process of transition from primary to secondary school. It comes down to speaking analytically about a piece of literature and language to meet the teacher’s expectations. The creative process is definitely not lost for good, it only is made out to take a back seat to critically and analytical thinking processes. It would have been nice to have a little more variety within my secondary schooling.

I can’t undermine the foundation I have built upon from the time that I was introduced to thinking analytically about language, such as the preparation and development of strong ideas. This foundation has helped me achieve certain goals that I had set out for myself in the college setting, and I understand that it is an important part of the literacy structure. The way that my teachers in the past taught was not always effective, but that can be attributed to a variety of different things, whether it is a problem caused by the student, teacher, or both. I believe that they might have put a large emphasis on critical analysis, because they were all very concerned with preparing their students for college, and in many ways they succeeded.