I have always assumed that I wasn't the best writer because I did not read so much. After taking english classes, I have now realized that I was never taught how to analyze text in a broad manner. I have only ever taken rhetorical strategies out of old pieces of literature in order to write a structured essay or answer the same style of multiple choice question. This also leads me to believe this is why reading in the past has been boring to me. Rather than reading to learn and understand new perspectives, I am just reading to then follow a strong structure.

This is no surprise to me as whenever a prompt is given and is to be done alone, I have so many questions and confusions. I find myself reading words over and over again, almost memorizing the next with no meaning behind it. However, when prompts are read together as a class, everything seems to make more sense. Teachers seem to always assume that you have learned something in the past, when in reality, we were never taught it at all. While this is not the teachers complete fault, it seems to be a hole in the whole education system. This also connects to strict curriculum standards where certain things have to be done by a certain time, which is definitely hard on the teachers' end.

In my opinion, this has not helped me except in terms or writing analytical essays. Outside of English Class, and a career path that follows, I think analyzing rhetorical strategies will not help you understand the text any better than if you were to genuinely read and try to learn and understand

The unfortunate truth is that even with this information, schools will still take years to implement this. This leaves so many kids put at a disadvantage. In previous english classes, there has been more discussions as years go by. However, I feel like in grades such as 8th and 9th it is much more crucial to encourage class discussion. This allows for younger kids to become more comfortable with discussion and voicing their opinions and thoughts.

I think I have seen more intriguing tweets and social media posts than intriguing pieces of literature in english classes over the years. More often than not, I see tweets regarding politics that make me think about real-world problems in different ways than usual. The huge platform of social media allows so many diverse opinions and ways to express opinions, anonymous or known.

I 100% agree with Tate on his position. Why should I have to review numerous pieces of Shakespeare over and over again just for one teacher to grade how "strong" my writing is. Shakespeare is something that many young students are not interested in, causing reading and writing about it to become almost chore-like. Instead, I'd rather teachers allow for more freedom when writing, and let students write about what is close to them and/or topics they are passionate about.