Once again, Illinois has decided to stop testing writing proficiency on standardized tests for elementary and high school students. As a former high school English teacher, I take a dim view of this decision and can attest that most students entered my high school with marginal writing skills. That left only four years for us to transform their writing into, at minimum, a means of effectively communicating in their everyday lives, or, at maximum, the clear and logical writing to be demanded by their college professors.
The diminution in writing skill among students began decades ago with the catchy “whole language” philosophy that rejected formal writing instruction as antiquated. Rather than teach students the building blocks of language first, the whole language proponents encouraged students to “just write,” promising that the kinks eventually could be worked out. Unfortunately, the corrective part of “whole language” was largely ignored, resulting in students with false confidence in the effectiveness of their writing. In trying to persuade students that they had to master the rudiments of writing before advancing to fluency, I often alluded to Picasso’s years of drawing chicken’s feet to hone his technical skills, hoping the analogy to writing would be obvious.
Factors other than “whole language” teaching have contributed to the erosion of writing skills. Fast, clipped writing ? from texting to instant messaging to commenting on social media ? with the attendant abbreviations and distortions has become young people’s chosen form of communication. Concurrently, English curricula have become less demanding, to the extent that final projects often consist of collages or skits rather than essays or term papers. While, I believe, many English teachers would like to return to more demanding curricula, they are hesitant to rock the boat, even though they know that boat is sinking.
I can just hear high school students reminding their teachers that the Prairie State doesn’t even test for writing ? so why are the teachers so worried about it? I, for one, would respond that writing skill was crucial to my academic success and to most jobs I have held. But what do I know? I got stuck teaching a subject that the State of Illinois considers expendable.
— Patty Schreiber, Campton Hills
