We remember some great introductory English classes: there was one about baseball and America, another on sex at the turn of the 19th century. You could even receive credit for studying “The Lord of the Rings.”
Ah, the good old days — soon to be, anyway. Here comes Binghamton University with the wet towel. The number of ENG 117 offerings has been reduced, and could be even more so if Harpur College Council approves an introductory writing class, WRIT 111 — all 56 sections of it — as a permanent class (see Page 1).
A lot of people in college can’t write well, it’s true, but a one-semester intro class can’t fix that. Making the course a requirement for first-years, a possibility down the road, would be even more futile.
College, despite a thinning line between it and high school, is meant to lend itself to some sense of specialization. Each school should set its own requirements. If you’re an engineer, you shouldn’t be held to the same standard as an English major, and vice versa.
Perhaps you weren’t the best English student in high school. Once you’re in college, you have at least some concept of your own strengths: either you can write well or you can’t. There’s nothing wrong with that, and we’re not ruling out the potential for improvement.
But a one-semester, put-you-to-sleep generic writing class won’t do a thing. We can barely remember our freshman year writing classes, and do you know why we’re able to recall the little bit that we can?
Because the classes were fun. The professors were engaging because they, for the most part, were actually interested in the coursework. WRIT 111 will be rudimentary and perfunctory, just another class to pass.
WRIT 111’s a fine course to offer for people who want to take it. But there’s no point in depriving us of interesting classes for four more credit hours of going through the motions.