Re. Teachers vs. students: one moral

[Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>]

     The recent discussion on whether to blame students or teachers for
     poor writing/reading skills has been criticized as off-topic by some
     of our roving correspondents.

     However, I'd note that a parallel lesson can be drawn from this debate
     that applies directly to the subject of the list: writing for an
     audience. In this sense, the writer is analogous to the teacher, and
     the audience is analogous to the student. What _I_ have learned from
     my teaching experience is that both the teacher and the student must
     be part of the learning experience, and that if either fails, learning
     may not occur. (It may occur too, but certainly isn't guaranteed.)

     Now, arguing by analogy is risky business, but it seems to me that the
     equivalent situation is that successful communication depends on both
     the writer and the reader: if either fails, communication may not
     occur. (This has the ring of truth to it, but as they say in science:
     "The tragedy of science is the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by
     ugly fact.") It's also interesting to note that our recent debate on
     political correctness has strong echoes in my hypothesis: several
     posters noted that our responsibility is to write clearly, and not
     accept the blame if someone deliberately misintreprets our words.

     So the question now becomes how, as writers, we can fulfill our part
     of the partnership, and how we can encourage our readers to fulfill
     their part. Let the debate begin anew!

     --Geoff Hart     #8^{)}
     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca

     Disclaimer: These comments are my own and don't represent the opinions
     of the Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada.