Whats Happening?... - For Feb 13

In reflecting on the happenings; several things come to mind. On the whole, as a student I can say that all of these "happening activities" sound a bit too "out there" for me. But I digress; I'll begin by saying that the one situation that bothered me the most was the "Silence as Experience" situation. "My words are my everything" is the saying that I tell those around me. Doesn't matter whether I'm having a conversation or sitting alone by myself, words, specifically spoken words, are how I brainstorm. When I have a paper to write, as was the case for the students in "Silence as Experience," if I am not talking aloud to someone, a roommate, friend, or professor, I am sitting infront of my computer (which I define as my "composition space") and typing my document while speaking out loud to myself (no I'm not crazy, it's just part of my composition process). The idea of taking away my speech (as a "happening") is quite troubling. I can honestly see that I believe that if I were to participate in this event my writing would suffer more as I would have to constantly attend to the fact that I was unable to speak. It would also hinder my brainstorming process as I would not be able to "discuss" (with others or myself) my writing. (Not to mention that the whole idea of being silent for that long of a period of time would be virtually impossible for me unless I was asleep.). Continuing through the readings, one point made in the text, "English Composition as a Happening" that "English Composition is the proper introduction to the possibilites of the university, a prevew of what the university is about." I think this is unfortunatly true. Let me explain: English Composition does not focus on writing practices (as was the case in my ENGL 100 course, we read from a reader and would spend the bulk of the class discussing these readings. The reading topics were all very different and dealt with materials from many disciplines...supposedly a sampling from all of the different areas the university teaches. I don't think this is a good thing though. I for one would like to see first-year composition courses that STUDY COMPOSITION (i.e. more emphasis on the actual art (yes art) of composing a text and when you do have to read materials...have them be on items related to composition, such as texts relating to the...I don't know...process movement? At any rate, (at this point i'm wondering if anyone is actually still reading) as I continued to read, one of the pieces that sounded completely "crazy" to me was the one titled "Making Freshman English a Happening" From CCC. Some of the ideas presented in this article baffle and astound me. "Be an ice cream cone - change flavor?!??!!" Come on...how does that contribute to composition at all except to put students in a "non-academic mindset." Most of the suggestions from this piece sounded absoltely crazy to me, hitting your head against desks, or going about the class looking only at your feet? The final piece I'll address in this blog (as I feel I have begun to ramble) is the piece about "Freshman Masks." I will say that everyone, myself included, is guilty of this; puting a mask on to make their writing seem more "professional," "deep," or "insightful." Is it a bad thing? Yes, when students use language they don't firmly have a grasp on and begin to ramble about a topic and completely destroy any meaning. However, if a student does have control of the language then adopting a mask to change one's writing style would not be the worse thing in the world.

Thats all about the happenings...I am sorry it took so long to get this post up..been plagued with computer problems. Feel free to post comments and i'm going to try my best to post comments on other people's blogs.

~Adam