For 3/18/10 Readings

Whether focused on women, feminism, race, ESL, or the potentiality of world Englishes, this week’s articles bring the issue of the Other in the composition classroom to the forefront. As an Other myself because of my sexuality, these articles really resonated with me. Flynn takes on the idea of how composing may be fundamentally different from composing as a man, and this piece made me wonder if gay men might compose differently from straight men, straight women, bisexual individuals, lesbians, etc., and if there has been any kind of research done on such a topic. For Flynn, it seems as if women seek out connection and solidarity with other women in their compositions, whereas for men it’s about individuality and success, success specifically at the expense of others. It would, also, be interesting to study the essays I get from my composition students to see if gender differences reveal themselves as Flynn suggests.

Richie and Boardman, on the other hand, provide a brief history of feminism in the composition classroom and show us that, despite the strides made by feminists in the last 30 to 40 years, those strides often go unrecognized and reveal that there is still much more work to be done, particularly in the area of feminist disruption—disruption of the patriarchal, heterosexist paradigms that continue to dominate composition studies. All of which, as Richie and Boardman rightly insist, “require rhetorical skill” (604). Indeed, if you can’t present yourself in a certain way and make sure that you’re taken seriously, success ant disruption will prove elusive.

Royster’s article reminded/showed me that my first voice was not my own—it was the voice of the patriarchal/heterosexist power structure that in one insidious way or another, was always trying to keep me, as a gay man, quiet and marginalized. Overall, what Royster calls for is a more inclusive and accepting (for lack of a better term) way of teaching, learning, researching, and publishing that creates the circumstances for real learning of and about the Other—from the Other’s perspective and from the perspective of those in the dominant classes of Western society.

On the subject of ESL students . . . I want to begin with noting the fact that, here at UNLV, we as graduate assistants are not trained in how to work with such students. Having worked in an administrative capacity in the composition office for a couple of years, I know they do a good job of trying to get students with ESL needs into the composition courses offered by the ESL office (I can’t think of its actual name right off the top of my head). But, in my four years of teaching, I’ve had plenty of students for whom English was not their first language and I could tell they were struggling with writing. I would like to see much more provided to us as GTAs in terms of how to teach these students. But I doubt that will ever happen. Basically we are told that, if they’re in a regular composition class, they need to be held accountable to the same standards and expectations as those students for whom English is their first/primary/native language.

One of the things that I missed in this week’s readings had to do with people with disabilities. In almost every class I’ve taught here at UNLV in the last four years, I’ve had students with some kind of a disability that needed accommodations of one kind or another. For example, in one of the World Literature courses I’m teaching now, I have a student who is blind. Often times she is late to class because she gets lost on the way into CBC, but beyond that minor detail, she has serious difficulties with writing—in terms of amounts of writing, the coherency of writing, and with controlling the surface features of her writing. Once again, this is an area we as GTA’s get no support or instruction on how to deal with in our literature or composition classrooms. Am I just supposed to let my requirements and expectations go for this one student because she cannot meet them? What kind of an education is that for her? How has she gotten this far (she’s a senior) in her college education other than the fact that other professors have let her “slide.” This is an other kind of Other that most certainly warrants critical attention.