David Batholomae's inventing the university talks about student writers and how to write. Basically he says even if they do not possess the expertise to write for their professor, for example, who has much knowledge on the subject and discourse, the student needs to act like they can write for the expertise, and hence will become a good writer. This is where the title "inventing the university" comes in- the student has to invent the university by putting language together (or mimicking language) with a balance of personal history and history of a discipline. A challenge with this, Bartholomae discusses, "is a problem of power and finesse" (628). This means just because a student wants to (or is supposed to) write for their professor, they don't have the power or means to have their knowledge, know their prejudices, etc.
Teaching students to revise for their readers will better prepare them to write initially with a reader in mind (627). This can only be successful if the writer is actually capable of imagining and comforming to their readers' goals.
A problem begins to arise in learning because it becomes more focused on imitation rather than focusing on discovering learning and writing. Barth. notes that in education, students are left out of scholarly projects where they would/could act like colleagues. This is where a new kind of discourse, bastard discourse, comes in. I liked reading about this part of the essay and understanding what leads to it, because we learned about this somewhat in our discussion Friday. I think it's a sad truth of education that students learn to cope with tasks by having a "knowledge strategy." I don't think it's necessarily students just trying to get around learning to get the grade, but sometimes coping and finding ways around certain academic tasks seems to be the norm, or what is learned in one's classes.
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Yeah. And that's not to say that the strategy is "bad" you know? I mean, all strategies are "good" inasmuch as the are an enactment of the human tendency to adapt to difficult situations. What else are students supposed to do? It is not their fault. We developed these kinds of strategies (which, honestly I think are nessecary in the Freshmen/Sophmore times when no one--not a one--around you is interested in creating knowledge) because of the way Acedemia is set up; the instituition forces students to take the short road because the institution often takes the short road. If the institution took a more mentor-like, collaboration-stressed, discovery approach, I think the student's illegitimate discourse would wane.
Don't get me wrong; I hope that the bastard discourse is replaced by Academic Discourse (notice the capitalization? haha!) one day. But this will only happen with each student, when his or her academic, intellectual interests swallow up his or her neurotic need to get a good grade and play the sick, twisted game of the institution.
I also think colleges should be run by a council of seasoned students who put checks and balances on the academic community. I think even instructors are sick of the traditional academic insitution.
(eh, maybe not; I got a headache now)
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