Gere Blog Post #2

I have been put in many situations throughout my high school and middle school years where I haven't been able to really broaden my literacy due to class or school policies along with being scared or not allowed to share my opinion. The curriculum in my schools was built to have students believe whatever the teacher was saying. In other words I was taught to mimic what the teacher believed and take that into interpreting readings and writing my own papers. I believe this lead me to be less literate because I couldn't write about what I wanted to and what interested me, rather I wrote about what the teacher drove me to write about and that kept me from really engaging into the project because I was usually not interested in the topic given to me. This same concept goes onto some of my college courses as well. I took English 102 last spring and the whole class was based around the topic of "fear." This meaning throughout the semester we were to research, read, discuss, and at the end of a semester write a final research paper that declared if we passed or failed the class all on fear. At first I thought all the English 102 classes had a topic that they based their class around, then I found out that most didn't and they could write about whatever interested them. This mad me feel like I was at a disadvantage because the simple topic of "fear," didn't interest me at all. I was at a stand still for most of the course because I never could really engage myself in the whole idea due to my lack of interest for the topic of fear. I think that if we could of choose our own topic for our research paper I would of been able to get a better grade because I would of been able to choose a topic that truly interested me rather than just meeting a requirement.

I wasn't required to do a lot of writing in high school, maybe a paper here or a response paper there. But I never thought as myself as a bad writer because I usually got good grades on these papers and felt confident in my writing until English 102. This class was especially hard for me because I had never had to write or think about research papers in the past. My teacher also wasn't very helpful. She made us choose our topic (fear) and flat out told us a week before portfolios were due that she expected all of us to not pass the class (due to poorly written rough drafts.) All of this feedback made most of the class believe we weren't good writers. Mostly because I couldn't engage myself in what was being taught due to a lack of enthusiasm on the topic. I was taught unconsciously that I was a bad writer mostly because I couldn't add my own flare and excitement in the topic assigned. Interest in a topic can lead to overall better writing, because rules restrict better writing!! I believe guidelines lead to leaving out important details that can interest readers. A fear driven policy in the classroom can lead to less interesting writing, that readers don't care to read about!