Issues, Perspectives and Possibilities

Abstract

Please share this letter with other composition teachers who may be in a predicament similar to mine. I've tried very hard to be an effective composition teacher but I'm afraid that I am a total failure. At the end of last semester, my students in Composition 102 took the sophomore level test and 65% failed. Because the failure rate of the students was so high, I was required to take a competency test which I failed because it had math and logic in it. As a result, I lost my job and with it my insurance and pension. My house, car, Visa, American Express and Discover cards are all gone. I cannot get unemployment because I was fired. I became mentally ill when I lost my job and used Medicaid to get into a hospital. I was only allowed to stay for 90 days and since I had nowhere to go, I became a street person. Fortunately, it is warm in Florida. Now, Ms. CCCC Chair, that I've told you the worst, I must confess that most of this has not happened yet. But it may unless you can tell me what to do. I wrote this kind of letter because I wanted to focus your attention on my problems. I am a non-tenured composition teacher in a large university. I teach 4 classes 4 days a week and spend two hours in the writing lab each of the four days. There is no time for me to do any kind of research and yet, I will not be tenured without it. Of course, I might not be tenured if I had publications because my institution has little respect for publications in composition. As bad as my professional life is, my performance as a teacher is worse. I seem to be unable to get even a third of my students to write an acceptable essay. I don't understand these students. They are not responsive to me at all. They will have to pass a sophomore level test and I am terribly afraid that most will indeed fail. Teachers at my institution will be held accountable for the performance of their students on this test.