SOME say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Robert Frost
Claire and I took a weekend adventure down to Santa Barbara. It’s quite picturesque, if you ask me.
My work has been getting to me lately. I mean, it’s easy money, but my job is stressful in other ways.
I’m a T.A. (or ‘teacher’s assistant’) for six different lower-division English courses at my college. I typically work in a classroom of forty to forty-five students, instructing them on English composition, writing strategies, and some grammar. I’ve been employed by the English department for the last three semesters I’ve been in school, but I’ve already made my plans to quit at the end of this semester clear to our department chair (i.e. my boss).
The level of ignorance I encounter on a daily basis at my job is staggering. America’s young is hopelessly undereducated - especially in regards to the English language. If you don’t know what a ‘thesis statement’ is, you shouldn’t be in college. If you’re twenty or older, and you’re still unsure how to use a hyphen, you shouldn’t be in college either.
I just can’t understand how my students reached this point in their lives without even accidentally learning some of this material. Last week, I met a thirty-year-old student who couldn’t explain what a ‘pronoun’ was to me. I subsequently facepalmed.
The reality of the situation is that, nowadays, English language skills aren’t as highly valued as they were in the past.
We live in a world dominated by the Internet. We spend our time reading blog posts written by novices who completely ignore grammatical syntax. Nobody cares if you use correct capitalization, spelling, or punctuation on Tumblr though, right?
We’ve adopted this practice as a social norm. We don’t expect people to know how to write proper English. As a society, we’ve reached a consensus and said, “Hey, this just isn’t important to us anymore.”
The reality of the situation is that many English professors and teaching assistants share these sentiments too. More often than not, the instructors of the classes I assist in would rather pass students for simplicity’s sake than review and teach twelve grades worth of English coursework to them to achieve a college-level understanding. We simply don’t have the time, or get paid enough, to care.
“But why would their professors pass them?”, you might ask. “Wouldn’t it just be easier to fail students who don’t meet those expectations?”
No. The answer is just as simple; it’s no mystery. Undergraduate English professors pass students because having a high number of failing students would reflect badly upon their teaching ability. If they didn’t, the number of students failing English courses would be intolerable.
So, that’s my job. I spend countless hours reading essays, many of which are so awful that I actually experience physical discomfort whilst reading them. I’m asked to grade students’ work and to pass individuals who can’t even grasp the most basic principles of English grammar, let alone write a fully developed essay.
As an English T.A., I believe that correct grammar usage is necessary to effectively convey the intended message of the writer, as well as to make the writing itself more enjoyable to read. Likewise, as a student of philosophy, I know that grammar means even more than that. I think Ludwig Wittgenstein says it best: “Like everything metaphysical[,] the harmony between thought and reality is to be found in the grammar of the language.”
Edgar Allan Poe
