<p>Well, mini, not all of us had super-parents that could homeschool like you. Some of us did just fine in public education. Believe it or not, our system does produce successful people. Some of us survived the horrors of the public school prison. Heck, some of us even loved the environment and thrived there. </p>
<p>Obviously there are broken school districts. Obviously not everyone who is homeschooled thrives like your child did (I only ever hear about one so I haven’t the slightest clue how the other one did). </p>
<p>I, for one, am happy to live in a place where I can get an education as a woman from a poor family. Do we need to fix the system? Absolutely. But, IMO, the way to do that isn’t to just continually bash it and call it a prison.</p>
<p>Not all jobs require research skills and the ability to write long papers. Nor a freaking thesis statement. But if one can learn to write clearly in 5 paragraphs, one could get by in plenty of jobs. My bigger problem is with kids who can’t self-edit. Too many of the college essays suffer a lack of that, plus the judgment. But someone else here critiqued the focus on editing, iirc.</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s anything wrong with learning how to write 5 paragraph essays. The problem is that attention to this form has squeezed nearly all other writing out of the curriculum in our area. This could be addressed by state (or college board) requirements that students write a minimum number of creative assignments, short (5 page) papers, and an annual research paper. After all, the AP science classes at our schools do labs and write lab reports, even though the AP test itself requires no labwork. I’m sure it takes a lot of time to set up those labs, and then the teachers grade the reports. I haven’t heard any science teachers saying they cannot do this.</p>
<p>Cpt-- I think I read your post as assuming it’s the student’s responsibility to recognize and adhere to the required writing purpose. Because it seems to me that a very restricted purpose or form is being almost solely taught, my point is that it’s unfair on them to have to recognize what’s needed when they’re not being taught that at the level they should. It’s counter-productive of them to unlearn a less useful form, and start from scratch in college. I should be helping them refine what they already have started mastering, not starting over with them, including unteaching what’s not working for them.</p>
<p>I took cpt’s point as, “learning to write to fit the requirements.” Most of life doesn’t require creative writing or lengthy analyses, perfect defenses. If anything, most people just need the ability to write something short and effective. Per the requirements, per the context. As an old boss often said, writing to the level of your reader. Or the reader’s needs.</p>
<p>I’m torn. I agree with the need for demanding writing experiences, for the skills it brings to thinking and organization. But, after the academic experience, how many actually use the writing skills to that degree? Plenty of us on CC, I’d bet. But what about the rest of them?</p>
<p>I don’t understand how the schools are getting away with this? My youngest is a freshman in high school, but she wrote papers (analyzing stories, book reports, science reports) in middle school. Her 2 sisters went to the same high school, and wrote many, many papers that were ripped to shreds by their English teachers, and they both scored very high on their writing assessments. Their teachers experienced them to be able to WRITE when they left high school…not a 5 paragraph theme like in A Christmas Story! I’m grateful to our public school that took the time to teach them to not only write, but tell a story, and communicate thoughts that others can understand.</p>
<p>Our local public high school does 5 paragraph essays, term papers, creative writing, DBQs and FRQs (or whatever those AP things are called) and more. It depends on the class. But the kids write a lot. I didn’t view my D as a particularly strong writer, but she had no problem whatsoever with her freshman comp class in college, nor with the writing in her literature class. I saw the writing of some of her classmates (who had the same teachers and the same classes) and some of them were wonderful writers and others not so good. I think a lot of it has to do as much with the student as with the instruction.</p>
<p>Massmomm, you have just made my day. My D seems to be allergic to the SAT essay. I don’t how she’ll do on the real thing but practice tests have yielded some pretty awful scores. She is a strong analytical writer who has won recognition in two different arenas but she just can’t seem to wrap her head around that essay. I’m encouraged that there are others out there like her.</p>
<p>As a general matter, D’s high school doesn’t seem to value good writing. The assignments have so far been limited to short, simple essays that don’t require much analysis or any research. I understand that APUSH will require a real research paper but that hasn’t happened yet. I’m encouraged to read about schools that still value the written word. It’s not just about learning to write but how to think and to communicate those thoughts coherently.</p>
<p>In a plate of shrimp moment, a father on our local facebook page was complaining this week about our (gifted) middle school essentially focusing wholly and unreservedly on the 5 paragraph essay as if it were the holy grail. It was “ok, ok, our kids get it! NOW what else?!?” but the teacher is stuck in that mode.</p>
<p>3girls3cats, who’s grading those practice SAT essay tests? Kaplan gave my older son zeros on his practice essays, which was just ridiculous, they weren’t great, but they weren’t that bad. He ended up with a 9 on the real SAT. This is a kid who writes pretty well, when he doesn’t go into panic mode about having no idea what to say - as he did with the weird questions and limited time of the SAT - he got decent grades on high school and college papers and a 5 on APUSH. My younger son is a really good writer, and scored the same on the SAT essay, but is fine with a writing intensive major in college. There’s a reason most colleges don’t pay much attention to the SAT writing score - it’s pretty meaningless.</p>
<p>Thanks mathmom, that makes me feel better. My eldest scored a 12 on the essay (her GC was amazed, said this never happens) and my middle D scored an 11. The first child is an assured writer but the second child hated to write and struggled with it. She figured out how to write something sufficiently lengthy and clear and finish it. Based on those experiences, I honestly didn’t expect my youngest to have so much trouble with it. Maybe the process has changed in the years since my older two went through this.</p>
<p>On the other hand, eldest D scored something like a 7 or 8 on the ACT essay.</p>
<p>If you want to complain, maybe it should be about how the SAT writing is graded, what tricks are said to yield a higher score. That’s different than the matter of representing yourself well to adcoms in the personal statement.</p>
<p>So, the five paragraph theme is a “mutt-genre” made up to help public school teachers grade and SAT readers grade. It has little to do with everyday writing where issues on context, purpose, and reader vary and require great nuance. It has taken over the schools.</p>
<p>My prep school senior, who has had fabulous writing instruction, need to learn the 5 paragraph format to do well on the AP and SAT. She learned it. Now I hope she will never, ever have to write any genre so meaningless again.</p>