Maxine Hairston

I'm in the thick of my readings for my upcoming doctoral exams right now. One of the things I've read that I've enjoyed most was Against the Grain: A Volume in Honor of Maxine Hairson. This lady was cool as heck. When more and more teachers began to use what is often referred to as "critical pedagogy" (aka the English Composition classroom as site for political change), she spoke out against it, pointing out that so many aspects of that approach work against creating an atmosphere where students can feel comfortable enough to really learn to write. A few great quotes from "Diversity, Ideology, and Teaching Writing" (CCC 1992):

"As writing teachers we should stay within our area of professional expertise: helping students to learn to write in order to learn, to explore, to communicate, to gain control over their lives... We have no business getting into areas where we may have passion and conviction but no scholarly base from which to operate."

"I vigorously object to the contention that they have a right -- even a duty -- to use their classrooms as platforms for their own political views. Such claims violate all academic traditions about the university being a forum for the free exchange of ideas, a place where students can examine different points of view in an atmosphere of honest and open discussion, and, in the process, learn to think critically."

But what kills me is this: this same woman who recognizes that teachers tend to blindly believe that they are correct and therefore justified in convincing a captive audience of 18-year-olds to either agree or keep their mouths shut, she is the same woman who, in her addresses to the CCCC conferences recorded in this book, conveys an understanding that everyone in the room agrees with leftist ideology. Because, naturally, no academic could make it as far as they have and still incorrectly subscribe to the ideology of the right. It isn't that Hairston doesn't think leftist views are correct, it's just that she recognizes that it's not the place of composition teachers to force it on their students. She's halfway to really seing the issue, which, to her credit, is much closer than a lot of people get, but still not close enough.

You know, it's really easy to convince yourself that you're right about an issue when the only people you have around to argue with you about it are eighteen-year-olds who are uninformed/underinformed/don't care about the issue at all.