Helping Those in Need vs. Ethnocentrism

I have been trying to write a blog entry for several days, but I keep getting on a topic and then not liking what was written. Then I’d write about politics but realize I was making claims and saying things without any support—not that I need to in a blog since it’s a journal and not an academic article. I would like to say something about school and what I’ve been doing, but university started today and I’m not needed until tomorrow. I also think you should all know I’ve spent the past 35-minutes looking up the proper uses of the em dash I used above; if anybody strongly objects to its use please feel free to respond in the comments section. In the meantime you can read about the essay writing class I am preparing for.

Last week I was approached about teaching my own class helping 3^rd and 4^th year university students write essays. I excitedly accepted, but am now busily hurrying up preparing for it. I have never written a true syllabus before, but this is a lot more difficult than I thought it would be. I have ten course topics so far:

1.       Structure of an Essay

2.       Types of Essays

3.       Creative writing

4.       Avoiding Plagiarism

5.       Finding a Topic and Writing the Thesis

6.       Researching and Citations

7.       Outlining an Essay

8.       Writing the Essay: Introduction

9.       Writing the Essay: Body and Conclusion

10.   Editing

After that I have nothing. There are 15 weeks in the semester, but I will only be there for 11 of them. I’m thinking some of these topics will need more than one session to cover, and I’d also like to give time for students to edit their work and maybe do peer editing. If there’s anything in this list you all think shouldn’t be in, or something that should be in and isn’t, just let me know. I’ve never been a great writer—despite the compliments most of you give--most of my papers in college were mediocre at best.

I’m really excited about trying to teach creative writing. If there’s one thing that I think is missing from most of Georgian education its creative thinking and writing. I’m not sure if it’s an after affect from Soviet education, but students are generally uncomfortable forming independent thought. I think students are too afraid of being wrong and looking stupid in front of the teacher and their classmates. I’ve seen this in the United States, but not in the same scope as I have in Georgia. Mass cheating and plagiarism is generally accepted as part of school life. I don’t know enough about Georgian culture to give an accurate answer. Georgia has a rich written heritage from the Middle Ages, and poetry is a huge part of their life. Maybe I’m looking at the critical thinking in an American-ethnocentric way.

This brings up an interesting point now. What is my right to judge students in western style of learning? I guess that’s something I’ll have to explain to them before class. Why it’s important to know any of this--Hm, I think I'm going to go think about that now. Hopefully I can reflect more on it later.