Houston Jones

Professor Meusing
August 23, 2014
Reading/Writing Background
The transition from High School level learning to collegiate level learning
comes as a shock to students. For the first time in their student lives they are free to
learn on their own terms and interact with other students to help in the learning
process. In the articles: This Isnt What We Did in High School, Writing
Punishment, and Reading Hate explains not only the transition to collegiate level
learning but also that the scare tactics used in high school are a thing of the past.
The article This Isnt What We Did in High School shows an emphasis on
the differences that a college level Writing class has from the classes students have
taken in High School. One quote in particular caught my attention as I was reading
this article, and I found it to be very accurate, the quote is as follows: .the class
atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable and wasnt as tense. As a couple
students have said its not a sit-down-and-shut-up class or a sit, listen, and take
notes class.(Specific examples inserted). I find this quote to be spot on, in high
school, you are expected to come to class, sit down quietly, take notes on the lecture
that your teacher gives, and then leave. In college, students are now encouraged to
learn on their own, and to interact with other students in order to facilitate learning.

This transition is not only a big step in students ability to learn on their own, but a
step in the maturation process as well.
At one point in a students career they have been subjected to the torturous
punishment of writing. In the article Writing Punishment, it explains how the idea
has translated itself throughout all levels of the education system, K-12. I myself
have had to endure such painstaking punishment, forced to write and rewrite a
paragraph explaining how I will be better and not misbehave in class. Roy Clark
states that, the tendency to equate writing to punishment is so deeply ingrained in
our education system that it has become popular culture(Specific example
inserted), and it is true, at a young age students are taught that writing is a form of
chastisement rather than a way to express ones emotions. We are teaching kids that,
rather using writing as a way to show your feelings on a topic, to rather shy away
from the practice as they age.
All students, not matter the age, are afraid of making a mistake in front of
their peers. However, throughout a childs schooling career they are often put in a
situation that leads to failure, as described in John Holts Reading Hate. In
elementary school one of my biggest fears was making a mistake in front of the class
(Fragment removed). The story describes the process of young children being
forced by their teacher to learn new words out of the dictionary, rather than
allowing the children to search for the words out of their own curiosity, this
experience (as Holt explains in the piece) often leads kids to shy away from their
curiosity of words. Holt states, Mark Twain once said that a cat that sits on a hot

stove lid will never sit on one again, but it will never sit on a cold one either. As true
of children of cats. If they, so to speak, sit on a hot book a few times, it will cause
them humiliation and pain, then they are likely to decide that the safest thing to do
is to leave books alone all together.(Specific example inserted). This quote
represents how the pressure of perfection that teachers place on students can cause
them to shy away from the activity all together. Holt does a good job of explaining
that the pressures that are placed on children should be left to the childs own
curiosity rather than force.
These three pieces show are representations of not only the transition that is
made from lower level learning to higher learning, but also some of the horrors that
students are faced with as they are coming up through the system. If we could end
these tendencies in teachers, then students would be more inclined to learn on their
own. These three passages how shown me that students are at the mercy of their
professors, be they forced to write and re-write passages, or look up every single
word they dont know in the dictionary, these tactics stun growth. Students should
be encouraged to learn on their own; to express their curiosity in reading and
writing, and teachers should be at the forefront of the encouragement.