Help! I'm in the Bamboozlizer!

#1: Any article which uses "bamboozled" is tops on my list. Bamboozled... it's like a drum solo for the mouth.



#2: A producer for A Way With Words called this Sunday to ask Martha and I if we would agree to be interviewed by Grant and Martha (this Martha being the co-host of the show and not the Martha I am married to). Well, heck yes! Martha and I recently went camping to celebrate our five-year anniversary. For some unknown reason, while sitting around the campfire, we began discussing the use of the Oxford comma. She's for it; I'm not (or rather, I'm against teaching it). This caused a great amount of concern and tension. An hour long discussion and bottle of wine resulted in a slightly inebriated message left on the A Way With Words voicemail, and -whalah!



#3: Consider this the transition between my anecdote in #2 and the point I'm leading into:



#4: I was taught to use the Oxford comma, but I can no longer defend it's use. It's still my habit to include it. I'm finding myself in the awkward position of believing the continued insistence of its use falls into the "It needs to be there because it's always been there and therefore it's correct" school of thought rather than demonstrating the Oxford comma has a unique use and function. This is, apparently, heresy to those in my English department.

I came to the realization at the end of my first semester of teaching that instead of simply reciting punctuation and grammar rules, I thought I should be more concerned with a student's ability to critically engage their own use of their language. I don't really care whether or not anyone uses the Oxford comma or doesn't (although its use does seem to be waning, so why focus on it?); what I really think is interesting is the students' moment of realization that choices went into their writing and their ability to critically engage those choices.

#5: You know why I hated English class in high school? The five paragraph essay and the endless stream of constantly modifiable rules with their exceptions. I go back to my high school self: sitting in English class, learning the countless ways in which my language is flawed and in need of correction. But my language worked just fine for telling jokes between friends, discovering the world, writing my first love poem, edging on and preventing fights... it worked well and suited me.

I come back to my current self. I am not part of "the large number of writing instructors... who walk into the classrooms filled almost entirely with white, middle-class students." (George, 103) I am typically the minority in my class. My students are mostly non-white, mostly non-middle-class. They work hard and often receive little in return. They struggle. They've developed a common language. Are they in class to learn the ways their language is wrong? Do they anticipate they will and raise the appropriate defenses?

#6: Shor's argument about community colleges stings and needs to be amplified. (96) My employer recently triumphed the unveiling of a workplace readiness program. We're going to emphasize soft skills such as "showing up on time" and "completing tasks". Watch out world! Class of 2010 is going to show up on time!

#7: Few things are as easy as picking apart a radical's argument. And liberation is a tricky business. I agree with Knoblauch and Brannon that not everyone needs saving. But I think my issue is a semantic one. I'm not sure focusing on instruction which hopes to empower the student to find her voice and change the world is "radical". I consider it part of a "basic" education.