Hand writing is...failing to prepare them for the future???
Hi all,
English professor here. I teach mostly intro comp courses.
Last semester, I did a mostly "old school" English class. No laptops. All hand writing. All the essays were written by hand, in class, from start to finish. They were allowed to bring a typed outline, a sheet with their quotes, and a typed Works Cited page that they'd staple to the back of their hand-written essay. They also did a couple typed reflection assignments.
Overall, it went incredibly well. Students developed confidence in their writing, I was able to give feedback on their ACTUAL struggles since they couldn't use a laptop to mindlessly fix errors, etc. Many of the students who took the course said they wished more of their classes worked that way and they feel their writing is actually improving from having taken my class.
All good stuff, right?
Well, a couple weeks ago my department had our regular meeting. I shared what I did in class and the results I received. I expected some skepticism, but I was shocked/baffled by the responses.
I was told...
-That because my class does all in-class writing, I'm not meeting course/program outcomes
(I do not understand how)
-I'm not preparing them to write in a variety of contexts
(But having them write all their essays at home on a laptop is???)
-My class might not transfer if a student told their advisor that all our essays were done in class by hand
(If someone could please clarify this, I'd really appreciate it, because...all MY English classes in undergrad worked this way???)
-I'm not setting them up for success in their future careers because they'll be expected to type all their documents when they enter the workforce.
(What future careers? Most of these students are undeclared majors at this point. Some of them are going into fields that require no writing skills, should those students not have to do the essays at all???)
I'd really appreciate any thoughts, feedback, rants, etc.
I'm just really confused, feeling defeated, and like there's no place for me in academia.