Composition: History & Theory: 1980 - 1989
Mike Rose, Lives on the Boundary (1989)
Description
Joseph Harris, in A Teaching Subject: Composition Since 1966 (1997), references Mike Rose’s Lives on the Boundary as a book that was crucial to a major shift in the debate on how to deal with “errors” in the writing classroom. The book, which focuses on a group of Los Angeles students who are struggling to find their way in a system of education that seemingly excludes them, builds off the work of Mina Shaughnessy (Errors and Expectations, 1977). Like Shaughnessy, Rose speaks to the link between education and politics (since under-prepared students are often, not coincidentally, minorities). Rather than assuming students need basic training in grammar, Rose argues that focusing on the routine, dull aspects of intellectual work can instead act to dim students’ ambitions and limit their chances of success (83). Rose focuses on “habits of the mind” and demystifying the workings of the academy for students and focusing on habits or strategies of thinking that students need to succeed (summary, critique, analysis, etc.).
Date of Upload
3/14/09