On The Importance of English Education

In 2006, an English teacher instructed her class to write to a famous author for advice. Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to reply, and this was what he said: “Write a six-line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anyone what you’re doing. [...] Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside of you, and you have made your soul grow.” 

Over the time span of 2011-2021, the number of English majors in the United States has dropped by more than 30%, a statistic that is more than a little concerning. This highly contrasts with the influx of STEM majors, computer science majors rising by a percentile of 100 during the same time period of ten years. With the presence of AI-generated writing, the apparent need for any sort of literary skill has diminished quickly, even for tasks as personalized as college essays. Lack of applications to the humanities means a withdrawal of funding nationwide, statewide, and university-wide, which means merging or even getting rid of those departments. And it doesn’t even start there; English teachers from elementary all the way to high school are underpaid, underequipped, and underappreciated, making their job one of the least desirable in the nation. The problem, of course, is that the education of 90% of students rests on these undesirable jobs. This is the first problem: because of a lack of funding, the field has been significantly reduced, creating a deficit of English educators, despite the inherent need for them. 

The second problem is the issue of the curriculum. The standard high schooler is assigned a book to read, then told to write an informative essay on the book. However, there is a severe lack of actual guidance on how to analyze a book and write an essay. Most students are left to stumble to the right answer alone. While problem-solving and initiative should be encouraged, they should not be the primary mode of teaching for a skill so universally needed. There are two points of contention with the curriculum problem. First, as mentioned, is the lack of guidance. Secondly, however, is the lack of intrigue. Students are given exactly what to write about, with little room for creativity, while also having to figure out on their own what exactly the teacher expects. It seems like a daunting task because it is, and this often prompts students to only half try on any English assignments. It’s not sustainable or worth it to pour effort into something that is not interesting or clearly outlined. 

But why does it matter? Why does English education make a difference, as long as we have a basic grasp of how to write? The problem is, with cookie-cutter writing, all sense of personal voice is lost. For a society so enthralled with standing out, we are dangerously content with letting other people speak for us, allowing artificial intelligence to express our thoughts. As good as technology is, letting it take the place of human creativity is a very fine line to be walking, not just because it’s a shortcut but because it promotes a deadlock in human development. Think about it; if we spend our days feeding prompts to AI, all our writing styles will eventually come to a standstill. We will be facsimiles of Shakespeare, copies of Dickens, imitations of Tolkien, and empty echos of Austen and Milton. Yet, we will never have another Shakespeare, no revolution like Dickens, no new worlds like Tolkien’s, no characters like Austen’s, no new prose like Milton’s. All we will have are regurgitated styles of past greats, and no movement forward. This is not a speech against AI, though there are arguments both for and against it. This is simply a warning about the reliance on artificial intelligence. We will be frozen in time, stylistically and conceptually, if all we plan on ‘writing’ is a mish-mashed word vomit of past pieces. People today will sound exactly the same 100 years in the future if language becomes inert and void. And why do we turn to AI? Because we don’t want to– or don’t know how to– clearly express ourselves through writing. That loss of direction and purpose in our writing starts in our schools, which is something that needs to change. 

My plan is first to revamp the English education system from elementary to high school so it models the five canons of rhetoric, a classical approach on top of basic grammar and spelling. Created by Aristotle and made famous by Cicero, the five canons of rhetoric are a way to clearly order and express your thoughts, and are as thus: invention, arrangement, style, delivery, and memory. From grades 1-5, the students will be taught invention and arrangement. Because of the relative youthfulness of those grades, their creativity levels will be at their peaks, and being taught how to organize their ideas and concepts takes their preexisting skill levels and runs with it, rather than trying to force them into conformity. The emphasis, through all of this, should be on nurturing rather than restricting, molding rather than breaking. 

From grades 6-9, then, there will be an emphasis on style, learning to turn their ideas into a unique voice, and giving a vessel to their thoughts. Dressing up their ideas, turning them into something that other people can easily consume, and finding out what their voice sounds like on paper. Everyone writes differently; that is the beauty of the expansiveness of language. The least we can do, then, is to help children find that niche, find their niche. 

Finally, from grades 10-12, delivery, memory, and all the other canons will be put together. They will learn to not only express themselves on paper but show that same confidence and individuality verbally, taking what is 2-D and bringing it to life. With memory, aka memoria, they will be able to boost their own confidence in front of an audience because they will not need to rely on external cues, a skill that they will continue to use for a lifetime. 

The purpose, ultimately, is to learn to start from a place of substance. Too often nowadays, people say words without saying anything at all, which can stem from a misplaced emphasis on sounding smart without actually having the information to back it up. You discover just as much about yourself during the process of writing as you do with the final result. In discovering our voice, we learn to discover ourselves, who we are, what we believe in, and how we can explain that to people on the outside. Writing is more than words on paper. Writing is tangibly becoming. So, as a challenge: “Write a six-line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don’t tell anyone what you’re doing. [...] Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what’s inside of you, and you have made your soul grow.”