Nan Miller is right to label the post-modern cultural “composition theory” to introductory freshman English as a major reason why college graduates cannot write.
In her lecture given at this Monday’s Shaftesbury Luncheon, Prof. Miller argued that by creating a classroom environment in which students are neither corrected when they err, nor shown models of good writing, they will never write well. At its root, this line of thinking shuns the idea of right and wrong — it is an idea that promotes amorality. Everything goes in this model. As long as one continues to profess a belief, they will never be wrong.
The sad truth is that Prof. Miller’s theory is true. The scary truth is that it applies to more than just writing. It’s the underlying belief behind revisionist historians, political apologists, enivronmental alarmists, man-hating femisits, and egalitarian thinkers everywhere. Replacing the notion of right and wrong (of ethics), is the idea of “will to believe” – a sardonic twist to an historically religious justification for faith. And that’s what it is, a faith. A faith in nothing. Absent of all facts (because facts are just an objective way to convey right or wrong), everything is true.
Bringing this all a little closer to home, the Triad Business Journal has a fantastic quote that shows how Prof Miller’s cultural group-think theory for freshman English applies to the world today.
Says Dexter King, executive director of the International Association of Assembly Managers Inc. of the continued financial failure of convention centers across the United States,
“Places of assembly are not expected to generate revenues to sustain themselves.
“The majority of public venues built in the United States have been economic drivers that also have other responsibilities for cultural impact. In other words, they create a quality of life in a community.” [emphasis mine]
Thus we learn that despite evidence showing a decline in attendance and a decline in the desire to attain the space, convention centers continue to sprout up. What boggles the mind, really, is that studies show this, yet leaders still choose to build these centers using those reasons as justification. And when they’re wrong? Just chalk it up under the amoral theory, and then give a nod to cultural improvement.
