Composition: History & Theory: 1980 - 1989
Myers, Greg. “Reality, Consensus, and Reform in the Rhetoric of Composition Teaching.” (1986)
Description
In his piece “Reality, Consensus, and Reform in the Rhetoric of Composition Teaching,” Myers’s main argument is that teachers view and assign work that uses the conventions of society, but in fact, are perpetuating the same societal structures through a lack of conflict and the idea that reality is beyond our control. He begins by examining the work of Sterling Andrus Leonard whose Dewey-inspired writings about English education were considered part of the progressive movement. Myers states that the work of Leonard should be “rescued from the storage rooms of teachers’ college libraries” because many of Leonard’s suggestions are still current in the voices of composition today as in the work of Bruffee and Elbow (438). The goal, according to Leonard, is for teachers to assign work that provides a view of the real world and the reality where students live.
Using a Marxist lens, Myers critiques the work of Leonard, Elbow, and Bruffee. While Myers finds value in the ideology of authority and consensus, he cites some evident problems: consensus means that interests of certain groups have been suppressed and excluded, and if reality is accepted than the illusion of the social structure is also allowed to remain constant. Myers continues by elaborating on the notion that business and education are inevitably connected, but in fact, school should not become merely vocational. His critique also includes a definition of what teachers consider good writing: “we just assume, lacking an agreed standard of writing quality, that good writing is writing that can be sold for money” (447). Myers concludes by pushing teachers to help students understand the social structure they are in and to help them criticize the social injustices through assignments that allow for skepticism.
Date of Upload
11/3/09