When comparing the two opinion pieces “What Should Colleges Teach?” and “Why Johnny Can’t Write” I was frustrated to see that scholars have been working more fervently on challenging college courses, rather than those in elementary, middle and high school. While educating college students is obviously important, it is my personal belief that college students have had more time to practice reading as well as there writing skills, and change should be occurring at a young age where all are receiving education.
Stanley Fish proposes a series of steps to teach upper level students to write. These include, making sentences out of a random list of words, asking students to turn a three-word sentence into an 100-word sentence, and replacing nonsense words in famous text. Although with each step they were asked to analyze what they accomplished, I wonder if by asking younger students, those who are first learning how to create paragraphs to complete these same exercises one would see success? What methods could we implement to younger students in order to start the process of better writing at the beginning of formal education?
To answer your question broadly, a large difference that my parents found in the Indian and American school system was the rigor of classes starting with early education. In the first few years of formal education, children are pushed to read novels and answer tough comprehension questions. In addition, they would begin writing longer papers, with what seemed like an overall higher set of expectations. My dad always used to say that they did not give me enough work through my K-5 years. He said they severely underestimate the power of children’s minds. Sure, this is a very kind sentiment, but at the age of 10, I was pretty satisfied with how much work I got and was not looking to get anymore. Looking back however, I would see the value in pushing a child to learn more in the age where nearly everything is fascinating. Thus, I think the overall key to better writing/reading/etc. is raising the standard to which we hold children.