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Toby Michelson

Writing 2

Maddie Roepe

3/16/2024

Script

Lazere: Welcome back listeners to Writing Teacher Talk. As always I’m joined by Dennis

Lynch, William H. Thelin and Gerald Graff. Today we’re going over a viewer submission. I’ll

play the clip now!

Viewer: Hey Donald, William and Gerald, this is Toby speaking. I was wondering what your

thoughts on Maxine Hairston’s take on politics in writing classes were. Love the show, keep

doing what you’re doing!

Lazere: Thanks so much for the submission Toby. If I recall correctly, Maxine had the opinion

that writing has no place in writing classes whatsoever.

Graff: Yes I believe she was of the opinion that introducing politics into writing was a radical

leftist plot to indoctrinate students and that there is no other reason to include political rhetoric in

writing classes. She also argued that if politics are normalized within writing classes, nothing

would stop teachers from teaching things like facism and racial superiority rather than marxism

or the like.
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Lynch: This entire question of whether we should be including politics in writing classes is a

silly one. A class that teaches rhetoric will always inherently link to politics. This question of

implementing politics or removing it from the classroom is too vague, and when examined

closely is found to be irrelevant.

Lazere: So what would your perspective on politics in the classroom be?

Lynch: I don’t want to propose anything specific on how implementing politics in classrooms

would work. The main idea I want to communicate is that politics is inexorably tied to rhetoric,

and people should give up on trying to disconnect politics from writing classes and focus on how

politics should be presented in these writing classes, as it’s inevitable.

Lazere: I see. Well now that you mention it, personally, I think that it’s absolutely plausible to

teach political topics without forcing your students to take a stance they don’t agree with and I

think it’s important to try. I believe political literacy is an important skill for any educated citizen

to have and should be taught in writing classes for the benefit of the student.

Graff: I agree, but how do we make sure that we retain democracy within the classroom while

introducing these political ideas to our students? It’s important that we don’t simply teach our

own political views but rather encourage and facilitate students coming to their own conclusions

on the topics.
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Lazere: That’s a good point, I think the ideal teaching model to allow for political ideas to be

taught in the classroom would be to teach the different stances on the topics and then once

they’ve grasped these positions, allow them to argue for their own conclusions through the

writing course. This way, students will feel as though they have the freedom to express their own

political views without feeling pressured by the political perspectives of their teachers, which is

the main issue that those who are against political topics being taught in classrooms seem to

have.

Graff: I like what you’re thinking. I believe that maintaining student autonomy should definitely

be a higher priority than teaching political topics, and by allowing students to choose which

perspectives to represent within their writing, I think politics can be integrated into writing

curriculum without forcing any political ideologies onto the students. The key is definitely to

make sure all sides of any given political conflict are represented so that the student isn’t forced

to learn from the perspective of the teacher.

Thelin: I don’t know, I feel like this teaching model still lacks a level of student autonomy.

There’s no regulation on which perspective teachers choose to have their students study.

Lazere: What do you mean, are you talking about what Maxine Hairston said about teachers

possibly teaching their students political ideas like facism and racist ideology?

Thelin: No nothing like that, I just feel like the teacher being the one that picks what topics and

perspectives to examine can lead to the student simply following the narrative laid out by the
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teacher by memorizing the information mechanically, which would mean the students would

come to less of their own conclusions on political conflicts and reduce critical thinking overall.

Lazere: So what would you propose as an alternative? I don’t see a clear way to achieve

democratic political curriculum while not having the teacher pick the subjects for the students to

analyze. Why would the students look at the full picture if they weren’t given all the

perspectives?

Thelin: I’ve actually had my students choose their own topics to cover in the past and the results

I’ve gotten have been great! For example, I once had the students vote on what topic to cover

and they chose serial killers. While at first they were merely transfixed by the fascination with

these killers, I posed the question of why they were so transfixed on individual murder compared

to the very common mass murder that happen around the globe like the murders by dictators. I

then made an assignment to research serial killers and dictators, and I really felt like the students

both learned about these mass murders and utilized critical thinking skills while questioning their

fascination with serial killers. This is just one example of an assignment within my teaching

model but I think the model as a whole has merit and greatly improves the amount of student

autonomy within what they’re learning.

Lazere: That’s an interesting perspective on the matter, I wonder what our listeners think? we’re

gonna have a short ad break, stick around to hear more on the subject! See you on the other side

for more discussion on writing classes.

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Works Cited

Dennis A. Lynch (1995) Teaching rhetorical values and the question of student autonomy,

Rhetoric Review, 13:2, 350-370, DOI: 10.1080/07350199509359192

Graff, Gerald. “Teaching Politically Without Political Correctness.” The Radical Teacher, no.

58, 2000, pp. 26–30. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20710051.

Hairston, Maxine. “Diversity, ideology, and teaching writing.” College Composition and

Communication, vol. 43, no. 2, May 1992, p. 179, https://doi.org/10.2307/357563.

Lazere, Donald. “Teaching the political conflicts: A rhetorical schema.” College Composition

and Communication, vol. 43, no. 2, May 1992, p. 194, https://doi.org/10.2307/357564.

Thelin, William H. “Student Investment in Political Topics.” College English, vol. 69, no. 2,

2006, pp. 142–49. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25472199.

Dennis A. Lynch (1995) Teaching rhetorical values and the question of student autonomy,

Rhetoric Review, 13:2, 350-370, DOI: 10.1080/07350199509359192