Hairston: Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing

In her article, Hairston explains her concern that, after the major gains college introductory writing courses have had over the years, that they have begun to regress. Instead of the classes being about allowing inexperienced writers to become competent in their writing skills and be able to effectively express themselves, she fears that classes have now become politically charged. By forcing students to write about a specific social issue in their essays, rather than about what they know, "...they are likely to take refuge in generalities and responses that please the teacher" (189). Not only is individual expression denied, but they will have learned only that there is a "correct way to think" (189).

While I agree with Hairston that basic writing classes should be strictly student-centered and kept away from the political realm, I think she goes a bit overboard in her argument, and I have issues with the majority of page 188 of the article. Although it is dangerous to allow teachers to hold a power that they could abuse by forcing their political opinions upon students, I doubt that the majority of teachers have that kind of motive. Hairston almost makes it sound like every writing teacher who assigns essays about social or racial injustice is attempting to recruit their own little political army. I highly doubt this is the case. Even if the teacher did express his or her opinions upon the class, Hairston has to realize that college students aren't as impressionable as she is assuming them to be. If they made it to the college level, chances are many of them have their own political opinions, so if anything, the classroom setting would turn into more of a heated political argument amongst the students.

Also, I know Hairston was talking specifically about intro writing classes, but I don't see how writing essays about current social and political events in writing classes is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I found that I've applied concepts I learned in my women's studies and sociology classes to some of my writing classes, in both discussion and papers. Isn't that the point of college? To bridge that gap between all of the disciplines (in their respective "ivory towers") and apply them to the real world?