I did not realize until after I had already composed much of my thought that I did not read the second part of the pedology for this week.  I feel so utterly in concomitant right now.  I am not one for making excuses because as busy as I ever could have been during one day I could have done the work before hand.  Which leads me to my discussion at 2:33am.

For the first time in my life I was handed The Red Pen last Thursday.  Not just any red pen.  The Red Pen.  The one that English teachers grades 6-12 have used to correct and grade my papers.  I assumed there was to be a tie in with our correcting grammar in our class as the class was also given an article by the article The English Teacher's Red Pen:  History of an Obsession.  On an attempt to begin my relationship with red pens I embarked my reading of the article with a red pen in hand but soon changed my mind and ended up trading in my red pen by the end of the first page.

I split this essay into two different parts.  There was the part I agreed with and the part of which I was not fond.  The very next thing I would like to say is this:  I am the daughter of a teacher.  My father currently teaches drafting and design technology at Dauphin County Technical School and never has he once, out of 25 years of teaching there, ever missed a softball, basketball, volleyball, or band practice due to extensive amounts of grading.  Yes I realize that my father is not an English teacher.  But he does have to go through countless numbers of daily drawing done by his student and correct them with a red pen. 

So, I will go as far to say is I think Zemelman and Daniels exaggerate a little in their first couple paragraphs.  Their outlook on the current system is very condescending  In their sinister perspective however there is some truth.  I have my doubt when they say, "And what other teachers expect everyone else to feel so sorry for them because of their overwhelming paper load?"  Never in my career as a student and observer have I ever heard these words come out of an English teachers mouth.  My father complains about grading yes but its no more than any general comment made before.  As an English teacher it is part of the job requirement.  I believe instead what they are attempting to convay in radical terms is that the amount of work imposed on English teachers by the nature of their work does not have to be so time consuming and demanding

This point leads into the idea of fostering a love for writing.  I have naturally had this passion for writing and never had a problem with red marks on my English paper.  I understood I was human and made mistakes.  Spelling and grammar were weak points and so I looked to those red marks for guidance.  I understand not everyone is like me though.  Which is why I agree that sometimes this extensive editing process is not needed.  Determined on a case by case basis I believe in the editing/revising process there is need for the corrections to help with the writing process but the article is right, even today, when given a paper back I do not look at the marks on the paper.  I look at my percentage and grade.  Nothing else.  The paper is discarded either right then, or at the end of semester when I clean out my binder. 

That being said I whole-heartily agree with this concept presented with "unmonitored practice with limited feedback" In my own words I call this free writing, or even creative writing.  As a English Major I miss this very concept in school.  I have such a passion and love for writing that I do not get to exercise say for the strict confines of the rubric for a given paper.  The fun and easy going air attached to writing has been scratched out by this red pen.  The constant search for errors does not foster creativity.  I will not go as far to say that content and context is lost to mechanics but I will say the passion in the context is taken out.  If the mind is given space to fly, imagine the heights it could reach.  Technicalities are weights, not keeping us from flying but from exploring new heights.