Clueless in Academe
“Clueless in Academe” by Gerald Graff
Graff’s extensive discourse talks about how many undergraduate students, and most especially high school students, feel “clueless” when they come up against the academic world. He emphasizes the fact that many schools and colleges reinforce and “perpetuate the misconception that the life of the mind is a secret society for which only an elite few qualify” and that this cluelessness felt by students, and often the general public, is perpetuated by academia itself “by making its ideas, problems and ways of thinking look more opaque, narrowly specialized, and beyond normal learning capacities than they are or need to be.” Graff states that to overcome this, students must become literate – they must learn to listen closely to others, summarize others in a recognizable way, and make their own relevant argument. “This argument literacy, the ability to listen, summarize, and respond…” is what he considers to be educated.
Some statements/questions worthy of class discussion/argument which present themselves from Graff’s article are:
1) For the most part, today’s high school students, and college freshmen, can not listen/read, summarize and analyze that reading and then present an argument – either pro or con. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
2) For the most part, today’s high school students, and college freshmen, can not grasp the meanings and subtleties of either the cannon or minority writer's work. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not? What has been your experience?
3) How do you feel about the five-paragraph essay? Is it a good template or a crutch to pass the Regents? Can we eventually get passed the five-paragraph essay? If yes, when and how? If no, why not?
4) How can we teach high school students to present a logical, well thought-out and well-presented argument, either oral or written, on ANY subject?
posted by Nieves Moy @ 3:51 PM
4 Comments:
One thing that I found particularly interesting in the reading was the discussion of how language, especially the language we as teachers use, may be contributing to the cluelessness of our students. Sophisticated language may not always be suitable, and can sometimes be ineffective. Many times student’s who don’t understand, will not question because they fear that their incomprehension will make them look dumb or stupid. As Graff points out, a more accessible language should not be viewed as “cultural vulgarity” and it is in no way producing a “dumbed-down popular culture”. There seems to be a preconceived notion that simplistic language is non-academic. We can look at it as a way to break things down, improve our teaching, and increase comprehension in the classroom.
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I think that it is important to note that teachers often spend much of their time just teaching their students how to read and write in general. As a sixth grade teacher of English Language Learners, I often spend most of my time teaching students the very basics of reading and writing and rarely, if ever, focus on content. How then can I prepare them for the academic language that may be infused into high school? Or will these students be swept under the rug? How can we be expected to teach these students academic language, when they are still only learning social language?
I also feel that most of the time university students are writing for a limited and already educated audience. We tend to create a list of things to do in order to combat the illiteracy in academic discourse, rather than taking an active role in creating this understanding. I feel that all too often, teachers say rather than act on how to educate students. They spend too much time developing ways in which to educate, rather than putting it into practice. I think that we need to put our thoughts into action not just into words. The questions are how and when?
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