Long and Hard Two Days

I spent the last two days scoring high school essays. Two classes worth were from students actually in AP English Literature and four classes worth of sophomores going in to AP English Literature next year. It is near the end of the school year so they weren't as dismal as in the fall, but anyone who thinks that this in any way mimics a college level class is woefully misguided. Now that everyone and his brother want American students to focus on STEM classes, literature and writing are the redheaded step-children. Gone are the very basics such as understanding nouns and pronouns, or using verbs well, let alone any ideas of forming and supporting arguments. Instead there is personal opinion masquerading as wisdom and hideous adverbs scattered like grains of salt. If I read another "truly" this weekend I may scream.

The most laughable notion is that these students, every one of whom is 17 or younger, have all grown up during the time in education when teachers were encouraged to make reading relevant and fun in order to encourage students to read and to write. Well they still loathe reading and writing but they probably make smashing dioramas. One student is even choreographing a dance to interpret Hamlet's "To Be Or Not To Be" soliloquy. I wish him well but I also wish he could write a clean paragraph with no elementary errors.