Top 10 complaints from a Creative Writing teacher

[Brian G Turner]

An interesting list of complaints, namely about students not wanting to learn, read - or even write!

Top Ten Peeves of creative writing teachers by Melodie Campbell

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Ha! I'm now a creative writing teacher (as well as my million other hats, I just needed another one!)

I really enjoy it, but, for sure, some people come along as a prompt to get writing!

 

[sknox]

What did this person expect? That she would have students already well-versed in the craft, and wise in the ways of the business? It's perfectly natural to believe one is above or beyond genre. One learns. That's what the teacher is there for.

Of course they have to learn punctuation and grammar. Teach them why.

Of course they write what is familiar to them. Help them be original.

I won't keep going. The peeves are peevish about the same thing: the students are behaving as students. Boo hoo. I had to teach my history students that opinions are not facts, that grammar and punctuation matter, that passing judgment is not the same as analysis, and so on. Had to teach it over and over and over. Had to watch students I believed had finally learned make the same mistakes yet again. Some were lazy, most were ignorant of the subject, and all had plenty of room for improvement.

In other words, they were much as I had been as an undergraduate. My professors taught me anyway, despite my shortcomings, which were legion. The best of them did this not only without complaint, but with humility and dedication, attributes which I remember more profoundly than any particular history they taught me.

I'll take that scotch now.

 

[Lumens]

I am guilty only of the last one. I don't nearly read enough fiction. I used to, and I am still sailing on that, but I am a slow reader and there is no way I could read 100 books a year, even if I had no day job...

 

[Parson]

What I heard her complaining most about was that so many students felt that they were the exception to the way the world usually works. In a world that glorifies each person's uniqueness, and often rewards students for nothing more than participation, it is hard to hear that you are not the exception to the rules and that hard, hard work is necessary to even have a small chance at success.

 

[DrMclony]

The memoir thing always bugs me. I mean, you find over privileged kids with a dull as dishwater ordinary upbringing want to write their memoir, and can't understand why nobody would ever want to read it. If you are teaching a course and all your students are like that, well, you'd go postal pretty quickly. Want to write a memoir? Go live a life worth remembering first.

 

[sknox]

What I heard her complaining most about was that so many students felt that they were the exception to the way the world usually works.

Don't most young people feel this way? Heck, you find that even in fairy tales.

I taught college for about forty years. The good ones understood who they had as an audience. The bad ones whined because their undergraduates weren't as sophisticated or dedicated as graduates, and their graduates weren't as good as the pros, and their colleagues weren't as good as they ought to be. I had and have very little patience for that sort of blind self-indulgence.

I *love* it when students think these silly thoughts. It means I can teach. Dealing with the disinterested is harder. I give them a chance, then I shrug and work on those who are interested. I always figured, "you're twenty years old. I'm teaching medieval history. Forty years from now, you'll be back and will find all this stuff fascinating." Then there was the rare young student who was dedicated and bright and interested. That's gold. That's pure joy.

But the author of this article seems to want only to complain. Good grief.

 

[Foxbat]

Then there was the rare young student who was dedicated and bright and interested. That's gold. That's pure joy.

It's also fantastic when a good and dedicated teacher instils a love in a working class numpty (me) that he never even realised he had the capability for.

I dedicate this statement to the very late Jack McKie, my english teacher, who's passion for Shakespeare rubbed off on me. He died the year before I left school but his legacy remains...

 

[Toby Frost]

Perhaps I am being unduly cynical, but I got the feeling that there was an entire subgenre of books like The Hunger Games.

 

[The Big Peat]

But the author of this article seems to want only to complain. Good grief.

Everybody needs to vent occasionally. One article's worth of complaining (with a certain amount of humour about the situation) seems more than fair and reasonable to me.

And certainly in no way is it an indication of the whole of a teacher's feelings about the whole of what they do.

 

[sknox]

Fair enough Big Peat. I didn't get humor, I got snark, but as I said this is sort of a hot button for me, so perhaps I reacted too strongly.

 

[The Big Peat]

Fair enough Big Peat. I didn't get humor, I got snark, but as I said this is sort of a hot button for me, so perhaps I reacted too strongly.

No worries man - you need to vent too