The Internet as Open-Access Democratic Education

Today at lunch, one of my colleagues and I were discussing how students are skilled in deciphering the differences between Target-brand boots and Uggs, yet many of them have very little interest or skill in deciphering reliable, or authentic, sources of information on the internet. The internet is an amazing resource that, when used for educational purposes, helps to de-center education from a traditional hegemonic perspective and embrace open-ended learning opportunities that offer diverse perspectives, the way Cultural Studies theorists promote.

The internet provides an “open-access democratic education” to “ordinary people” who desire an understanding of “intellectual questions in relation to their own lives” (75). But without knowing how to evaluate sources on the internet, are students and “ordinary people” bound to fail in the world of mass communication and popular culture without the skills necessary “to become better writers and readers as citizens, workers, and critics of their culture” (Berlin 145)? George and Trimbur anticipate the answer to this when they briefly mention the detrimental institutional polarization of literature and composition/rhetoric.

At the institutions I have taught, rhetoric is the forefront of only one class: the AP Rhetoric and Composition course. Even my former school in North Carolina, whose English Department Chair claimed that the curriculum was AP aligned, rhetoric was never part of the “master plan” until a student took that one course. Would an emphasis on rhetoric prepare students and “ordinary people” to explore this “open-access democratic education” in hopes of becoming “better writers and readers as citizens, workers, and critics of their culture”? Because some form of rhetoric is found in almost any kind of text, popular culture and mass communication are bound to become subjects at some point in a rhetoric-infused classroom. By examining popular culture and mass communication through the lens of rhetoric, students can learn how to decipher the author’s purpose, the rhetorical strategies he or she uses to achieve that purpose, and the assumptions the author makes about his or her audience.

Although theorist Maxine Hairston may not approve of the reintroduction of rhetoric into the writing classroom for fear of teachers inoculating their ideology on to young, impressionable students, teaching rhetoric to students teaches them to question what anyone tells them by considering the speaker’s aim, strategies, and assumptions. When rhetoric is taught properly, students will view exchanges in a classroom as texts, a teacher’s lessons as a text, and information on the internet as a text; therefore, the problem is not rhetoric in a classroom but rather the questionable ability of some teachers to teach rhetoric. While this could be viewed as a valid concern, it should not trump empowering students to become free-thinking, life-long learners who can take charge of their own education using the internet.