Question: Do students
grow in writing during their college careers?
Answer/Quote: “In 1975,
Derek Bok, president of Harvard, asked Dean K. Whitla, director of the Office
of Students, to verify the widespread belief that undergraduates were leaving
Harvard-Radcliffe as writers no better than when they entered. Whitla ran a
meticulous study of first-year and fourth-year students at five institutions
and concluded that the ability of Harvard-Radcliffe students ‘to present an
organized, logical, forceful argument, increased dramatically over the college
years.’ Whitla’s unexpected finding was followed by what I will call the Bok
maneuver. Forced to report to Harvard’s Board of Overseers the unpopular news
that their undergraduates really were developing their writing skills,
President Bok said the gains were not ’substantial’ enough, and ‘many students
showed no improvement’. Bok’s maneuver has remained common in attacks on US
education. The USS Academia is off
course, the argument goes, and any evidence to the contrary is belittled, or
just jettisoned.” Pp. 487-488.
Comment: When your “friends” tear you to shreds, who
needs enemies? Reminds of the current NCLB stereotype that blames teachers for
all student and school failures. Grrrrrr! RayS.
Title:
“Methodologically Adrift.” RH Haswell. College
Composition and Communication (February
2012), 487-491.
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