For the most part, this project is done. The story was really the biggest hurdle and, while I was stressed for days trying to create a completely new piece from the original Alice in Wonderland, I decided to use some of the original’s quotes and lessons to highlight the message of my remix.

I did feel like I struggled to connect a mental illness to the story, but I tried not to let that stress me too much since, at that point, I had a story forming in my head. I was really motivated to connect voice to the story since I feel like that was my biggest takeaway from the class and it’s an issue that can tie into not only writing but the self as well. Plus, Alice seems to struggle with fighting societal norms in the original anyway.

The collage was pretty simple too, I wish I would’ve had time to make a real one, but we can’t have it all!

It’s interesting that they discuss the idea that college is knowledge. While, of course, it is, it isn’t the only form of knowledge. This is the issue Hollinger wrestles with in the beginning. Everyone sees it all the time in high school, including myself, and the statement “You’re going to need this for college,” can definitely leave a student feel powerless. It re enforces the hierarchical structure of the teacher-student relationship because it leaves the students feeling like they don’t know any better and the teacher does, since they seem to have experience on their side. It goes back to pulling students away from trusting their own instincts.

Later in the reading, we start hearing about the much-needed separation between literature and good writing. On page 345, Wright states, ” These classes teach students how to make writing choices appropriate for specific audiences and situations; in other words, they teach students how to consider who might read their texts and what this audience’s relationship might
be both to the writer and the writer’s purpose,” and I think it’s a great summarization of the great difference between literature and writing classes.

Literature classes limit students to focus and analyze the text in itself, which typically leads the writer to think of one reader, the professor. While writing classes, allows students to mold and build their words into a structure that is accessible to anyone who’d be interested in its content. I used to struggle with this difference a lot because I used to think good writing meant exactly what it isn’t.

Wright kind of brings back the idea that teachers are just as limited as students sometimes, which is another reason to bring down the idea that teachers know all and students do not. If we all acknowledged that we are all in the same playing field, we may discover new methods of approaching these issues.

This essay connected to Formulaic Writing in that Baker-Bell explains how the “right” way of doing things, or the socially acceptable way, steals a student’s identity. Baker-Bell approaches the same idea in relation to language.

With the focus on language, this idea becomes way more personal somehow. I think it’s because spoken language is so much easier to express. It’s our default way of expressing our thoughts, so when someone tells us we aren’t speaking right, it’s like they’re telling us to fix our thoughts. But, as Baker-Bell points out, the thought is there. It’s the delivery that bothers some people because it isn’t mainstream White English.

I have some connection to the stories Baker-Bell tells in her essay. I am the child of immigrant parents, so the amount of times I had to be the one on the phone because they couldn’t speak “proper” English is beyond me. The thing is, they were speaking proper English. The most they’d “mess up” are past tense words, or roll a few Rs. As I grew older, it broke my heart to see them so anxious to talk to people in “proper English”. If they could, they’d avoid those conversations as much as possible. It also frustrated me because I know how badly they’d want to express a thought and didn’t have the right words to sometimes. Of course, this is a bit different than Black Language since it involves an entirely new language. I know this isn’t exactly what Baker-Bell was getting at with Black language, but it definitely relates to how we are forced to narrow our identities to fit what is socially acceptable and how that might affect our confidence in expressing our thoughts. The same goes for formulaic writing, as I’ve said.

On page 8, Baker-Bell says, “Anti-Black linguistic racism is embedded in this approach as Black Language gets interpreted as a defect of the child rather than a defect of the educational system’s response to it,” which resonates with the frustrations I’ve stated above.

Formulas are easy. In a way, the social norms engraved in our minds are formulas. If we follow them, we are rewarded. If we don’t, we may not be. This is what Wiley seems to be generally getting at in his essay.

At first thought, it was interesting to me that “Schaffer’s Formula” used the same writing formula for essays about literature and personal experience. RIght away, this made me go “….wait,” because personal experience essays are personal, they should be individualistic and it’s crazy that students are deprived of the freedom of expression because they are told the formula will get you higher grades. Personal experience essays are the perfect opportunity to allow students to run wild with their thoughts and explore their writing identities. It frustrates me to no end that this is taken from them because it’s “easier”.

I also think that because students are wired to follow these formats, the content they read is never digested correctly. Their job is to write the paper and they’re on a time crunch. Meaning, they are trying to read as little as possible to gain time to correctly follow that formula. This defeats the entire purpose of teaching these subjects.

I can definitely recall old classics I first read in high school that struck a chord in me. I had so many thoughts about the book, its writing, the ending, the characters, etcetera but I was confined to the prompt. I had to answer the question asked, and only that question, because if I didn’t I would be “unorganized” or “unfocused”. The truth is I could have included all of my thoughts about the book in an organized fashion if I knew how to on my own, but it was never taught.

For this reason, I lost my love for reading, as almost every student does. Even if I tried to reignite that fire, I would read a book and the content would fly right over my head after a few months. I wish I had other means of approaching my absorption of literature early on, so I possibly would have never lost that fire.

(My posts have been drafted this whole time. My apologies!!!)