Students in Professor Raschilla's English composition I class on Thursday, February 11, 2010

Professor Raschilla invited me to speak to his English composition one class.  While he asked me to give students ideas for persuasive essays, I also had an opportunity to listen to their comments and to explain to then broadly about the system of public higher education in Massachusetts.

This class was typical of those at STCC: it was a diverse mixture of ethnicities, and ages; almost all the students worked; most were in school to secure a good paying career; all seemed bright and serious about their education.

Students had a number of comments about the college: they wanted better parking (“Why doesn’t the college build a parking garage?”); they were concerned with rising college charges (Will STCC be affordable next year?); they suggested changes in the class schedule (Why can’t we take two evening courses on the same day?) 

To provide a context to respond to their comments, I explained how the college is governed and how it is funded.  I discussed the dilemma of public higher education – how the withdrawal of state support for its colleges has forced students to pay an ever increasing share of the costs of their education and required colleges to cut budgets. 

Finally, we talked about old and new ways of publishing written material.  Among the traditional media are newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, books; the new media include blogs (including this one), twitter, email, Facebook.  Each of these media generally has associated particular forms of writing.  The persuasive essay that they were required to write was one of those forms; social networks were another.  We agreed that understanding what the rules and constraints for each medium would help them in their writing.