In an Essay, no matter what it is, you are correct that it must be based on fact, and a large majority of it must be, however my teachers also thought it was a great idea to promote originality and creativity in students.
A fine idea, but actually my comment was more on how it is presented. Good essays should be forceful (be they argumentative or informative). Phrases like "I think" don't belong, even if it is only what you think. Saying "I think" is essentially an apology. Read a textbook; the majority of what is in it is nothing more than what someone thought, but you won’t find the authors apologizing. So act like whatever you think is what
is... just be sure the arguments and evidence is there to back it up.
Of course, any such concepts always take a back seat to specific prompt directions. If you teacher thinks asking students to state what they think will inspire creativity, then one should by all means use those very words.
Besides, we're talking High School English, not College English, which I imagine is way harder.
Unfortunately, not really. Maybe you'll be lucky and get teachers who'll challenge you but in general, no.
... but I did get great grades all the way through because of my natural voice and ability to express what I wanted to express while still remaining on topic and relating to the facts.
A wonderful gift. But since you said you're getting a degree in English, allow me to warn you that it seems like every English department has at least one professor who tries to teach "style." No good has ever come from such a concept.
You want to sit here and pull this shit out on me by me saying one thing that just so happens to be true in High School English classes, while never minding the fact that society is based on fluff, is bullshit.
Actually, it's high ideals (but maybe I'm quibbling over semantics). Yes, society works by keeping up appearances (that is, by being filled with fluff), but why should that give fluff value? Suppose you are employed at a business; you can probably get by with fluff (giving the appearance of actual work without there being any value to it), but you can also get by with actual work, being productive, etc. Fluff or work get the same short term result. But long term? An employee pool of fluff will bloat the company, waste resources, and weaken it. Fluff is why American automakers aren't doing so hot, fluff is why the dot com bubble burst in the 90's, etc. Trying giving nothing but fluff in a relationship and see how long that lasts (and see how much it satisfied you). Fluff works in the short term, but it is not a viable long term survival strategy.
Maybe you’ll be lucky and get by with a life of fluff to no consequences, but you’ll have harmed everything you gave fluff to instead of real work.
Your mind is like a muscle; if you don't use it (by producing naught but fluff), it will be weak for when you do need it.
My teachers were all great, and taught me a lot of things while making it fun for me to learn, so if you want to sit there and diss them, you're really going to piss me off, and you don't want to do that.
Actually, that sounds like fun. I've never been one to let sleeping dogs lie
Hints of sadism aside, who was insulting your teachers? To say that a teacher gets worn down isn't an insult, it’s a statement regarding the system itself.
The American education system is a meat grinder that both students and teachers are put through. A "teacher" is the single most important employee in a school district; they are the ones producing the goods that merits the schools existence in the first place. But they are burdened with dictates from above, regimes and structures that hamper the teaching process. English teachers, for example, often can't choose what books to have their students read; these are established by a school board or department supervisor. Even when they do get to choose, those choices are restricted by what is considered appropriate subject matter. Harry Potter might be better literature than The Crying of Lot 49, but if the school board doesn't like it, too bad.
Grades are another example of how teachers are oppressed (and students in turn). Let us use a mathematical example. A math teacher has to produce a grade, so they have to test the students, yes? But parents expect to see homework, so the teacher can't just have one final at the end of class. Thus, homework is assigned. Usually this is in the form of numerous math problems, in the range of 30-40 sometimes.
Except... that is utterly pointless. If a student doesn't understand how to solve a problem, those 30-40 problem will be a struggle and might well ingrain incorrect concepts that the student will then need to unlearn. Alternately, a parent might help the student figure out how to solve the problem, but then if the parents are the teachers, why have a teacher? And if the student already knows how to solve the problems? Then those 30-40 problems are busy work. Usually about 5 math problems are sufficient to determine if a student understands or needs additional help.
So counter-productive homework is used to help determine a grade (and keep in mind that a math teacher of a class of 30 would have somewhere around 900-1200 problems to grade, then).
Some teachers enter the field with hope; they're going to teach students to the best of their ability. But as soon as a teacher allows crap like that to go on, they are allowing their own abilities to be hampered. When a teacher gets to the point where they value fluff over actual work, damn straight they've lost hope and determination.
That your teachers succeeded in making the subject fun to learn is a clear indication that they do not value fluff over actual work. But don't be so blind as to think that they're perfectly fine; they're under a heavy burden of a useless bureaucracy; if that was removed, no matter how good they are now, they could be better.
The thing about this class, the essays are thrown out if they're anything under the minimum requirements. Three misspellings or typos, in the trash. More or less than six sentences for the intro, in the trash. Shorter or longer than two and a half pages, in the trash. Use first person pronouns or passive voice, in the trash. No grade.
It was a classification essay, and I just have a hard time classifying things I don't really care about.
Gah. Teacher’s like that make me foam at the mouth in rage. Besides, sometimes the passive voice is needed. There is a reason it exists.
Sad this is, there are teachers who forbid the passive voice who also don’t understand what it actually is. I’ve had more than one teacher who thought that the past tense was the same as the passive voice.
