One of my followers jokingly asked me the other day if I would like to write some essays for her. That question brought back my sad essay writing history.
As I wrote before I went to a one teacher high school. We had one room with grades ten , eleven and twelve. The teacher taught all subjects to all three grades. If it was math period he taught a lesson to each grade and gave assignments. When I think back these teachers had to be awesome. These teachers were not highly qualified. They were just dedicated and hard workers. The two teachers I had did not have degrees. They were both majoring in math so their strong area of teaching was in math. They worked hard in the other subject areas but they could not do as well as the math. As a result my best marks were in math. When it came to English I barely scraped by. I do not remember writing an essay of any kind. We did the odd descriptive paragraph.
When I entered university the challenge was monstrous and the learning curve steep. We were assigned essays of opinion and many other papers that required first class writing skills. Needless to say my first attempts at essay writing were pathetic ...so pathetic that I failed first year English. Because I'm an eternal optimist I repeated first year English and had an instructor who gave me assistance to improve my writing skills. I also realized that I had to put more effort into the class and also visited the prof to get help with my papers.
So when someone asked me if I would like to write some essays, it triggered the memory of a very stressful experience.
So in high school I did well and math so I majored in math when I went to university. After I had been teaching awhile, I asked the Principal if he would give me an English class. When I got my timetable I had three English and one math so I was somewhat alarmed. I talked to the English dept head and he was quite pleased that I had been given the assignment and encouraged me to take the assignment instead of going to the principal and asking for a change. From that time on I taught English. I also became the English dept. head for about seven years!! I have to say that teaching English was my most satisfying teaching assignment.
So if I'd have had a high school teacher who was an English expert I would have had my best marks in English and wouldn't have had a challenge with essay writing.
And to my follower who wanted me to write essays for her...the answer is still no.
It's a little bit like a formal blog post to me, Red. An essay is simply "a short piece of writing on a particular subject." How is that different than this post? :-)
ReplyDeleteAgreed that an essay is a short piece of structured formal writing. Certainly many blog posts are essays.After that it gets tricky as there are different types of essays and essays are graded by profs who assign them. That's when the pressure is on.
DeleteWhile my grammar is alright, my vocabulary is very limited, So I'd say no to essays too :) Its really awesome how you worked so hard and finally became a English Dept. Head. Cheers, Ruby.
ReplyDeleteIt's a challenge for you when many other languages are used around you every day. Keep at it you're doing well.
DeleteYou aren't giving yourself enough credit. Your blog proves you can write. You do a nice job of putting words together.
ReplyDeleteThanks Rae. My writing is very informal. I write for fun rather than a student who ha to support a position. Both of my kids are excellent writers and they make my efforts look sick. When they edit mys stuff they make many changes.
DeleteI bet you were an awesome English teacher. You knew from whence you came and where your students were heading. This makes the very best guide and that's what I think we teachers are...guides on a life long journey of learning! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteI always got my inspiration from new teachers. I especially liked having student teachers. I also wanted a drama teacher in the dept.
DeleteInteresting how the least favourite subject became what you ended up loving to teach ;-)
ReplyDeleteThe reason for this was that I was not exposed to the same quality of teaching in English. But I can live with it!
ReplyDeleteI so loved writing essays! I can understand why you didn't and don't!
ReplyDeleteI love your posts and your comments on my blog.
It is a treat to talk with you! Very few around who want discourse.
Cheers from Cottage Country!
I could not understand why I had difficulty writing. I didn't see other people's writing. When I taught I made sure kids read each others writing. I also did the assignments I gave the kids. I usually wrote my work on the board so kids could see what I did.
ReplyDelete