The first thing I should do is clarify what I mean when I say that I don't like this class. I don't mean to say I do not like the people in the class. In fact, I quite enjoy the company of the people in our small class (since the candy binge holiday [a.k.a. halloween] is right around the corner I could call our class "fun-sized"). I don't mean to say I don't like you, Mrs. Cardona, because I do. The only thing you could do better would be to give me tons of extra credit points for no reason. Hint hint...
The reason I dislike this class is the content. I come to class every day waiting to see what thing we are going to do, hoping that it's going to be something interesting, but usually being disappointed. What is so bad about the content, you ask? Here's the truth: America is the greatest country on Earth.
Just kidding. I'm not a politician. If I was I might enjoy this class.
The problem with the content is that it's all doing with no learning. In physics, you learn a formula, and then you figure out how to apply the formula to a certain situation in order to arrive at a single correct answer. In AP Comp, you read or listen to something and then write or talk about it. But you don't really learn anything new. I could have told you when I was in elementary school that when someone says things the people who listen to him like, the people who listen to him will like the person more. The only difference in the analysis that is done in this class and analysis that is done by everybody without thinking is the amount of work and how long it takes.
When I do the work in this class, I don't feel like I'm doing anything. I feel that I'm BSing my way through everything. I used to feel bad about this, thinking there was some trick that I wasn't getting, but now I realize that there is no trick. I'm going through the process correctly, or as close to correctly is possible in this class, it's just that the process is simply busywork.
And what is the purpose of this time-consuming episode of
Even if the author does put the effort in to write with a bunch of special rhetorical tricks for some special purpose, and we take the time to keep track of every one of these special tricks, and speculate what they are for, so what? I don't care that this random guy used inverse diction on a sentence in the middle of the 17th paragraph, and there's no reason I should. The author doesn't write so we can analyze the writing. The author has some other purpose in mind. When someone walks into a room and tells you something, you don't ask them how fast they walked to the room. The vehicle between the author's idea and the author's product is not relevant, only the product is. By getting caught up in analyzing the writing, the effect the author's idea has on you is diminished. For example, humor is truly lost once you try to explain why it's funny. I honestly no longer find that video I posted last week funny after having to analyze the humor.
So why am I in this class? I was bad at writing. Not bad bad, but bad in comparison to, say, math. I thought that through this AP class I could finally find the secret to writing. But there is no secret to writing. There is no right answer, and therefore no perfection towards which to work. And that's stupid.
Nooo, Paul! AP Comp is the best class ever! I don't think you realize how good you are at analyzing writing... You always seem to get the right answer when Mrs. Cardona asks the class questions. I, on the other hand, fail miserably every time I answer a question. And you're actually really good at writing! I understand you're a physics kid, but I think you don't get yourself enough credit. Maybe if you realize how talented you are, you'll start to like the class more!
ReplyDeleteAlso, sorry if this comment is kind of creepy. I didn't feel like doing homework, so I started to creep on other people's blogs.