I hate teaching creative writing

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

This sounds a good bit like my current internal debate. I get frustrated by kids not caring about their chem class, but the fact is that you just can’t expect more than a few kids, even in college, to really care or get your subject. They’re immature, and most of them took the class for a reason other than really having a yearning for it.

Sometimes you have to just put down your foot firmly and say, “This is the way it is. I like you as a person, but this needs work. I would suggest 1, 2, 3.” I got frustrated and loud at my performing arts academy kids because they ask me questions about things we tested on 3 weeks ago, but the fact is that they’re right brained, and they’re just not going to concentrate on stuff like chemistry much, and they’re not going to remember it very well.

Concentrate on the kids who like you and the subject, and make sure your butt is covered in regard to the others, and take your pleasure from the good students.

62

Wow. Think about that, ruber. Isn’t that what you do when you write–you craft prose such that the reader understands the thoughts in your head? If your entire audience takes away a meaning entirely different from the one you intended, do you blame them for being an inferior audience, or do you rewrite your prose so that it more effectively communicates your meaning?

This is the same thing, in an oral medium. Your audience is not hearing the thoughts you’re trying to say. You need to figure out a different way to say them.

Your message doesn’t sound bad to me: I’m all about the teaching of rigorous compositional skills. It’s the delivery that seems to be the problem.

Daniel