tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236798.post1434090146990866430..comments2023-08-07T05:30:42.119-04:00Comments on Odds and Ends: On Why I Call People Who Are Writing WritersNick Carbonehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13965878135277592695noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236798.post-14767375532217490192015-07-01T11:45:55.014-04:002015-07-01T11:45:55.014-04:00Good points, dkeppy.
Your post reminds me of what...Good points, dkeppy.<br /><br />Your post reminds me of what I've heard history teachers say when I talk to them about their teaching. They don't expect students to see themselves as historians per se, but they do want them in the course, and in writing assignments they give, to be able to "think historically," to ask the kinds of questions and do the kinds of analysis and reasoning historians use. <br /><br />It's a slight shift, but an important one. Nick Carbonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13965878135277592695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5236798.post-8743137874561992312015-07-01T11:40:28.289-04:002015-07-01T11:40:28.289-04:00It might be helpful to attempt an analogy that fra...It might be helpful to attempt an analogy that frame an opinion on this issue. In my case, I would look to mathematics and the teaching of calculus for a comparison. Students have long since convinced me that saying "Everyone is a mathematician. Period." contributes minimally to the productivity of calculus classes. If this were a valid analogy, I would be with Toor all the way. Perhaps the rejection of a like imagined analogy is the basis for Toor's response.<br /><br />The problem is that <i>being a writer</i> is an altogether different thing from <i>being a mathematician</i>, and not a translation of existential essences. Or even epiphenomenal categories. One cannot help but think in a language, a language susceptible to being written, and a language the writing of which can and, upon occasion, will be used by everyone mastering it to consciously convey ideas or feelings. Even for long articles and blog entries. And hence, everyone is...a <i>writer</i> of the sort that Toor probably expects. There is no counterpart to this in mathematics. Brain structure etc., etc. notwithstanding, <i>number</i>, <i>set</i>, and other mathematical entities are not part of the natural medium of thought. They are concepts acquired much later by in human development than are words. Thought does not depend upon quantification in the way it does upon verbalization.<br /><br />Consequently, calling students writers is more a less a call to self-actualization; calling students mathematicians voices only instructors' kind wishes. Toor may be thinking that <i>some</i> students, those who have earned it, benefit from calling themselves writers (maybe graduate students in creative writing?), where others do not. My guess, however, is that calling oneself a writer and being called a writer is relevant and motivating in any writing course. By extension, in any Writing Center. By synechdoche, on a poster hanging in a Writing Center.<br /><br />Calling most calculus students even <i>aspiring mathematicians</i> seems a bit affected. The analogy I attempted is, I am afraid, quite imaginary. And Hemingway's quip is a jibe at "writing officialdom" whereas, if Euclid had said "Everyone is a mathematician. Period."...well, he didn't. See, however, <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S089396590800253X" rel="nofollow">this</a> for what everyone is, vis-a-vis mathematics.dkeppyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08167446811540892602noreply@blogger.com