Xref: utzoo comp.edu:3843 sci.edu:1102 misc.education:1245 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!turpin From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin) Newsgroups: comp.edu,sci.edu,misc.education Subject: Against educational fads (was: math credit) Summary: Writing skills = word processing? Absolutely not! Message-ID: <15425@cs.utexas.edu> Date: 4 Dec 90 17:50:07 GMT References: <15404@cs.utexas.edu> Followup-To: comp.edu,sci.edu,misc.education Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas Lines: 79 ----- Cross-posted to sci.edu and misc.edu. ----- In article freewill@nstar.UUCP (Bill Williston) writes: > aren't writing skills and word processing synonymous in 1990? No. No. No. Not the slightest bit. One of the world's most preeminent computer scientists, who holds an endowed chair in the Computer Sciences department here at the University of Texas, does all of his writing with pen and paper. In this, he is not alone in the department. I mention him in particular because of his iconoclastic views on word processors. He thinks they are evil. He thinks they cause writers to focus on form rather than substance. He thinks people write better with pen and paper. I think he is wrong. If one were to look at the published writings of the various professors in this department, I doubt one could tell which authors write with pen and paper, which dictate and then revise with pen, and which write with word processors. But you can tell who writes well and who writes only competently. This is my point: writing skills and media skills are quite different. Given a college freshman who writes as well as Edsger Disjkstra, but who has never seen a typewriter or computer, we can send that student to an informal or vocational class, and within a semester that student will be able to type, word process, and manipulate MS-DOS better than ninety percent of the professors at the university. In the meantime, that student's handwritten papers will be a joy to read, and a welcome break from the perfectly printed dreck that is more common to college freshmen. But given a college freshman who does not know how to write, who cannot put a verb in each sentence nor an idea in each paragraph, and who does not know why this is important, then that student's further education is stymied, regardless of how well that student's fingers fly over the keyboard. Remedial writing classes cannot teach in one semester, or even eight, what was absent in that student's first decade of learning. I do not object to high schools offering or mandating classes in typing, word processing, driving a car, cooking, or any other useful skill. But I vehemently protest the idea that any of these can substitute in even slight degree for the core academic subjects. An entering college student needs the writing skills, mathematics, and basic literary, geographic, and historical knowledge that primary and secondary schools are supposed to teach. If the student does not know how to word process (or how to drive), that student may be inconvenienced. Such small skills are quickly made up. But it is almost impossible to make up the academic skills and knowledge that one is expected to acquire in twelve years of learning! No, writing skills and word processing are NOT synonymous in 1990. They will not be synonymous in 2000, nor in 2010. In 2090, word processing may well be an obsolete practice. But writing skills will still be vital to a person's education, just as they were in 1090, and 90. > As a high school teacher I can tell you that schools begin > 'failing' before high school. Of that, I have no doubt. But it is frightening that a high school teacher would confound word processing with writing. Please, I beg of you, for the sake of our children, think long and hard about how our primary and secondary schools are failing, and where the corrective measures lie. Typing and word processing classes are irrelevant. One of the most pernicious influences on our primary and secondary schools are the teachers who do not know what is important and lasting in education, and what is a passing fad. WordPerfect is a passing fad. The keyboard will last somewhat longer. But even after these are obsolete, it will still be important to know how to put together a sentence. Teach this first. Russell Brought to you by Super Global Mega Corp .com