Language Arts is a Beautiful Mess of a Subject
“Do avid readers and writers even understand the value of the school subject?”
A striking question from Reddit emerged the other day regarding the subject English Language Arts, or ELA for short.
As an ELA teacher, I’m consistently meeting new students who loathe the course. Frankly, they don’t see the point. By the time they get to high school, they can read and write at a quite competent level. I’ll tell them that English majors are amongst the most desirable employees, however, trying to convince teenagers of anything is a challenge. Perhaps — and it took me awhile to figure this out — convincing teenagers of anything isn’t really the job of the teacher. At best, your mission is some form of inception.
I often wonder if adults feel that ELA, or English Literature classes, were worthwhile. Do they recognize the value 10 years into their careers? Do they understand the predicament the instructor finds themselves in?
What’s the goal of English Language Arts?
Ask 10 instructors, and you’ll see a sense of inconsistency amongst them. Some say it’s a skill based course, however, some argue that it should be a socially aware knowledge-based course. The following question from Reddit shares…
