Well, perhaps calling it a "defensive perimeter" is a wee bit o'er the top.
Or is it?
Let me begin by saying that I would be unlikely to object loudly when faced with instructors who believe it best NOT to teach students how to write a standard academic essay. However, I have yet to be convinced that it does the students any favors to leave this particular skill off the menu of requirements for a quality liberal arts degree.
OK, I get it--the five-paragraph essay could be one of many ways to reinforce structural norms. It is but one way to write and think--not the only way, not even the best way. But here's my problem with tossing it beneath a passing truckload of Freire, Shorr, or even Foucault texts as we strive to liberate and transcend young minds into something more, something better: it is a very, very useful way to write and think.
From the most practical standpoint, it could surely be argued that teaching students the five-paragraph essay (or another traditional form of essay) will help them to succeed in academics and in the "real" world, where written reports/requests/etc. are a daily exercise for many. From a more high-minded viewpoint, though, it still has value. Every time we teach a student to think and write in a particular way (especially one that is built on a logical, progressive argument), we have given them a new way to relate to the world. Not the only way, but one way--and a way that is just about universally helpful when clear communication is desired with those in power and those without.
Teaching a student to write and think through traditional essay style merely opens some doors; it does not close them. It seems to me that to argue that we are closing off or limiting the students by teaching them this basic communication skill shows a lack of faith in the intellect of those we instruct. It is not as if once a student has learned to write a classic essay that student will become an automaton unable to spin lines of poetry or rap about the oppressed. To the contrary, I would argue that the more ways we can guide our students to think and write, the further along the path to truly creative and life-changing transcendence they will be.
I am fairly certain that Beethoven did not feel limited by his classical training in music. And I know that he started his creative journey writing simple sonatas, fugues and rondos, showcasing his creative brilliance from within a highly structured form. It was decades before he took those early skills, practiced often and tempered by his life experiences, into the realm of symphony writing. I do not believe he could have achieved his symphonies had he not first mastered the sonata.
Yeah, maybe Beethoven is a far-out example. But the point is not: knowledge, like skill, builds through exposure, practice, and time. Knowing one thing does not limit our ability to know another; if anything, it opens us up to more ways of knowing.
Here's the thing--we can tell our students that the five-paragraph essay is just one way of doing things; not the best way, not the worst way. Just one way. One way that is quite helpful for exploring new ideas and communicating those ideas to others. I always tell my students just that. And I'm good humored about the process of (re)learning to write the essay (the video link in the slides I have below always makes them giggle...but then they take notes). If you want to see how I have approached it in a past class, feel free to check out these example slides from a past lecture on the subject.
I love teaching writing. And I enjoy seeing students develop the ability to write clearly and concisely.
And so my defense perimeter stands.
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