Future Leaders of the World

I just finished grading a batch of problem-solution essays written by my twelfth graders. They were to pick a societal problem and propose a detailed solution — this was in reference to our in-depth study of the British Restoration and Eighteenth Century, during which various issues such as poverty, women’s role in society, scientific thought, and government’s obligations to citizens were explored thoroughly in both fiction and non-fiction. 

I am not sure if I should approach this seriously or humorously, so I am just going to present the information throbbing in my brain for readers to do as they will with. I did have many students write adequately thought-out responses, but about seventy percent of them fell into line with examples like these (and I have edited for mechanical problems and rambling issues): 

* One young lady claimed that the debate over abortion could be eradicated if only we would ban legal abortion altogether. I’m pretty sure I have tens of millions of people who would still debate it, sweetie (more on this essay and issues it brings up in a later post…).

* A young man (who sits near her in class, come to think of it) asserted that the problem of underage drinking would be solved if only the legal drinking age was lowered. With a chuckle and a scratch of my head, I suppose this is TECHNICALLY correct… if we got rid of speed limits, we would TECHNICALLY have no speeding violations, either. Just egregious violations of common sense and reverence for human well-being. 

* Another young man wrote (this one I can’t even find mildly amusing, just downright scary) that the biggest problem facing America today is that Barak Obama is about to become president and take away our guns that we need to protect ourselves in the event that we are attacked by the terrorists that he is not going to protect us from. His proposed solution to this perceived crisis? Democrats need to stop disagreeing with republicans. And according to him, if this does not happen there will be rioting and killing. I am kind of curious though… if “our guns” are taken away, will all of this killing be done by strangulation? Stabbing? Hmmm. Maybe I can joke about this after all. 

Anyhow, feel free to comment. I think this demonstrates for me (and all teachers) how important it is that we do our best to model problem solving and logical thinking for our students — in many cases I believe that that is my primary role as an English teacher. I do not only teach literature and writing in a technical sense, but it is my responsibility to use the writing process as a way of cultivating a REASONING process, and reading as less of a transactional experience that an exercise in interactive critical thinking. It honestly frightens me when I see what a large percentage of high school upperclassmen have no sense of logical cause and effect or of thinking for themselves — so much of what I hear from them when we attempt to discuss ISSUES sounds like it has been regurgitated from crappy internet sources or even crappier TV “news” programs. 

Any teachers out there care to comment on how they work to combat this?