cac.ophony.org

Last week Diana Rickard and I organized a luncheon in the Sociology and Anthropology department to meet with faculty and talk about their concerns with students’ writing, and generate ideas for the faculty development seminars we plan to run later in the semester.  Once Diana skillfully moved the conversation beyond the frustrations around having to teach grammar to college students we typically hear in these meetings, it became clear how engaged our participants, mostly full- and part-time junior faculty, were with students’ writing, and how creative some were in designing assignments to increase participation.  I especially appreciated the fact that talk about the “problems” of CUNY students regarding oral and written communication was kept to a minimum.  In fact, the Chair explicitly stated that his colleagues in elite schools frequently mention dealing with similar issues.  While it is true that the diversity in the academic backgrounds of CUNY students pose real challenges, it is important to keep in mind that our students do not come from a different planet.  Does anybody else think that sometimes, in our efforts to understand and be sensitive to the needs of our students, we border on pathologizing them?