The Politics of Correction

Wow. This piece really hit home for me.

Firstly, because I was in a pretty widely criticized "bad" school district from kindergarten until my senior year of high school. 

Secondly, because I attend an urban college that is teeming with people of different backgrounds who shamelessly express themselves in the languages they are comfortable using, and rightfully so.

And lastly, because the idea of correcting self-expressive language rubs me the wrong way…yet I still have a hypocritical, annoying habit of correcting people when they're not conventionally correct in terms of their language or writing. 

Some of the most beautiful novels, poems, lyrics and stories were conceived through self-expression, and innovative language. Some of the most raw, heart-wrenching, relatable pieces of writing or spoken language are those that come from the heart, from a comfortable and confident place… and yet we use red pens to mark up papers and find it strangely annoying to hear someone say “ax” instead of “ask”, mispronounce a word, or use jargon or slang to express themselves. Why? Because the language of success in America isn’t the one we are most comfortable using, it is the proper, conventional, correct use of the English language. We tell kids that they won’t be able to pass state tests, or get into college, or find a good job if they cannot speak the language of power in all of its politically correct, painfully dull, and conventional glory. As much as I’d like to bash the idea of using proper English, I cannot. I’m using it right now, and it has been drilled into our heads from the moment we entered a classroom. I do not disagree with the notion that language = success, but as educators, we need to stop discouraging our students from using “home language” because it is fundamental to their self expression, and the growth of their language.

Linda Christensen is one of the most well-known and renowned English educators in America, and yet she even admits to using words that aren’t seemingly “correct” in the eyes of the proper American like “chimbly” instead of “chimney”.

I have lived through this all of my life. In every single one of my classes since I was four years old, students were getting called out and embarrassed over the way they spoke, the words they used, their pronunciation, annunciation…you name it. As a future ELA educator, I’m going to have students who expect me to do the same to them, and I will have to. Linda Christensen says that English educators have become so accustomed to looking for errors, that they fail to acknowledge if a student is doing something right.

Although the language of success is necessary, educators have to nurture every single student’s desire express themselves the way they feel the most comfortable. We need to teach them the proper way to speak, write, communicate, etc. because they will inevitably be judged, and we want the future judgments made about our students to be good ones. We need to properly equip them with knowledge of the language of success so that they can access it when they need it, like in job or college interviews, while networking, and in professional settings when proper English is expected.

I like Christensen’s notion of “The Teacher as a Scientist”. She uses Mina Shaughnessy’s Errors and Expectations as an example to elaborate on how educators need to examine their student’s writing, looking for patterns and explanations so that you can determine exactly what errors the student is making, why, and figure out how help the student acknowledge and correct these errors. You cannot simply mark up a paper and expect the student to take anything away from a bunch of red ink on their work. It’s one thing if a student isn’t putting any effort into their work, which results in multiple errors, and it’s another thing if a student’s paper is riddled with mistakes they don’t know they are making. For instance, students who have learned, or are learning English as a second language. They may be incorporating bits and pieces of their home language, or the rules applied to their home language in their English writing and speaking. It is up to the educator to identify each individual’s problem, speak to the student, and see if they can correct it on his or her own. If not, then the teacher can step in for further assistance.

Christensen also places emphasis on how important it is for students to revise their own work and hold them accountable for their own errors. She speaks about one of her student’s, LaJuane, who handed in a paper full of errors, but was written with a lot of passion and enthusiasm. It’s hard to just shoot someone down over errors, especially when it’s evident that they enjoyed writing it so much. So what she did was tackle one issue at a time, despite the fact that he had numerous issues with capitalization, spelling, apostrophe’s and basic sentence structure. She began with capitalization because it was the easiest to solve, after showing him a few examples, she held him accountable for correcting the rest of the capitalization errors in his writing, then moved on to the next issue. I like this idea because although it does sound time-consuming, you’re not overwhelming a student with a marked up paper that could possibly be destroying their self-esteem and any enjoyment they might’ve had during the writing process.

In my future classroom, I plan on letting my students do free-writing activities and self-expressive projects where they are free to use the language they are most comfortable with. “Translanguaging” will be a fundamental feature in my classroom, as well as teaching them the language of power and success we call “proper English”. I hope that my future students will be able to seamlessly toggle between conventional English and the language they’re most familiar with whenever need be. Although we live in a world where “proper English” is expected, it simply isn’t realistic. There are so many different cultures in America and so many different people immigrating here that we cannot expect people to be “proper” all the time. Students may not be able to use conventional English with their families, so it’s not ok to discourage students and continuously correct their way of speaking because it can potentially offend their entire lifestyle, family, or culture.

For me, the ideal English classroom can teach the language of success to produce successful individuals, yet still encourage and cherish the unique use of language of every student, every culture, every background and way of life.