Uptaught

“Surely they were learning great things from me. I was only a part-time instructor but felt the weight of the trappings of academic prestige and rank.”  (11)  I thought this line was really funny and interesting. He says with such confidence “surely” like there is no doubt that he is more knowledgeable than anyone in the class, and such confidence for a part-time instructor. He doesn’t call himself a professor but an instructor, and that makes me wonder if it is his ego that is telling him to call himself an instructor because he feels “young/ inexperienced” or if that’s how people referred to professors during that time?  And as I continued reading the rest of that paragraph I began to feel like it was more his ego; specifically from the line “I imagined all the students were looking at me and saying with awe, ‘He’s an instructor.’” Not only are the students saying, but he believes they were saying with awe, like there is some deity essence about him because he is a part-time instructor.

I feel like a change has happened by early May 1964: “I told my Advanced Writing class, ‘Go home and write anything that comes to your mind. Don’t stop. Write for ten minutes or till you’ve filled a whole page.””(20) There is a huge level of freeness within this assignment. It seems like Macrorie is releasing control and letting the students lead him, where as before he assumed he was the cat’s pajamas and that students looked up to him with awe. I feel like I am seeing a different side of Macrorie than we have so far in the book, a more creative side. But does he find this acceptable because the people writing this way are advanced students; they already know the rules of writing. Later on Macrorie was impressed when he gave this prompt to students in lower level writing classes, which I feel like should have been no surprise. Especially when students or people have the opportunity to write about something they know or that they are passionate about.  

I think it was this class that it was said: as an English major people expect you to be good at write or more accurately spelling and grammar. So when I came across page 66 and read Macrorie’s thoughts on They Need Correction I wasn’t shocked that this was how people viewed English teachers. I would say I have taken extra care of the language I use around professors, not just English professors. Also I try to pay attention to how I speak when I am talking to co-workers; I feel like I should because they all know I am an English major and thus I must speak elegantly.  But to tell you the truth grammar, spelling and overall proof reading is not one of my strong suits. And I absolutely hate being asked to proofread emails or long papers for group projects just because I’m an English major.