What Should Colleges Teach?
Stanley Fish,
New York Times,
Aug 28, 2009
I don't exactly agree with Stanley Fish, but I don't exactly disagree with him either. He writes, "As I learned more about the world of composition studies, I came to the conclusion that unless writing courses focus exclusively on writing they are a sham, and I advised administrators to insist that all courses listed as courses in composition teach grammar and rhetoric and nothing else." I agree that composition courses should teach composition. But I don't agree that the core of composition consists entirely of grammar and rhetoric. I would include logic and reason as constituents of such a core (among other things). Moreover, I cannot think of a better way to teach all of these - grammar, rhetoric, logic and reason - than by teaching using examples of such work, and that would require teaching (contra Fish) "everything under the Sun".
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