More educational disservice

I accept that a certain population within my classroom despises formal writing (or any type of writing).  I accept that I have a captive audience and that all college students are forced to take composition.  I understand this, and I try to smile and go my merry way.  This quarter has been different.  I have students telling me that they should be doing creative writing, that they want to do whatever they wish, write however they want, and that I should stand back and let it happen.  Nothing we do has purpose or value, except for me to assign a letter grade (as stated by a current student).

The current educational system has failed this generation of students in two ways.  First, we have fed into their sense of entitlement and selfishness.  Oh, just let them read whatever they want, as long as they are reading something.  Oh, just let them write whatever they want, as long as they are writing. We can't correct their spelling; it hurts their self-esteem (I'm looking at you, CUSD).  Um...no.  It isn't about you.  If you want to write creatively, take a creative writing class.  This a composition course, teaching you the basics you will need to survive college.  I guarantee your old-school history professor isn't going to let you write whatever you want.  And stop using first person in an academic essay.  The essay isn't about you; it's about the topic presented.  Why is Tim better at grammar than I?  His teachers taught him to diagram sentences.  He learned the equations of written language.  Why do I have trouble spelling moderately difficult words (like, uh, available)?  I cheated on spelling tests.  Remember when being educated meant you studied world history and geography and Plato and Sophocles and Shakespeare, and you knew the difference between there, their, and they're?

The second way we have failed students is through high-stakes testing.  We have been forced to "teach to the test;" otherwise, we risk losing funding or our own paychecks.  The independent learner is going the way of the dodo.  Students cannot seem to look critically at their own work.  I'll make comments on an essay, pointing out that the student is having issues with possession vs. plural.  I'll point the student to the chapter in the text that specifically covers apostrophes.  I'll even send them to a humorous website explaining the difference.  If I don't point out every time in the essay where that type of mistake happens, only the one instance I pointed out is changed.  No, you need to find the plural and/or possessive words and determine if those are actually correct.  How will you learn from your mistakes if I am doing all the work for you?  The answer is B, but why is it B?  Is it enough to know the answer is B?  Shouldn't we know why it is that way?

I have two types of students: fresh out of high school and those out of high school for 20+ years.  The students who last wrote an essay in the 80s have a stronger writing base than the high schoolers, and their skills haven't been used recently.  I'm not saying I no longer want high schoolers in my classroom.  I would prefer if they not spread their venom where I can hear/read it.  I wasn't a huge fan of math, but Jungle Jane never heard me bitch about it in her classroom.