Look, I love English and I also felt unchallenged by my high school English teachers. I had a fabulous 9th grade teacher (which for me was Jr. High) but then my 10th grade writing class felt like a sad, redundant version of everything we'd done the year before. The next year, my American lit teacher demanded the shallowest essays: 1-page "which character did you identify with most" kind of drivel; that’s not asking a lot from 17 year olds. Most of these people did not seriously challenge my writing ability, even the ones who liked me. I did well because I already cared about the subject and my father was an excellent writer who helped give me a foundation for revision. So I'm more on your side than our friend the “Prose Athlete” up above.
But he’s not wrong. Running a marathon is not the same as running a fast mile. A 5-page paper and a 20-page paper are simply different beasts. And often if you change the scale of the paper you have to change the nature of the assignment. It is hard to imagine reading two-dozen pages of an essay without some kind of outside research component. Often shorter English assignments have none.
A skilled teacher would be able to tell you this but still find ways of engaging you at your capacity. A bad teacher will blow you off. You are right to be angry if that happens. If you have the chance to go to college, you will find better experiences there. But in the meantime, it is possible to write a glimmering short paper without phoning it in, whether you have a shitty teacher or not.
Is it normal for English teacher to be this lazy?
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Look, I love English and I also felt unchallenged by my high school English teachers. I had a fabulous 9th grade teacher (which for me was Jr. High) but then my 10th grade writing class felt like a sad, redundant version of everything we'd done the year before. The next year, my American lit teacher demanded the shallowest essays: 1-page "which character did you identify with most" kind of drivel; that’s not asking a lot from 17 year olds. Most of these people did not seriously challenge my writing ability, even the ones who liked me. I did well because I already cared about the subject and my father was an excellent writer who helped give me a foundation for revision. So I'm more on your side than our friend the “Prose Athlete” up above.
But he’s not wrong. Running a marathon is not the same as running a fast mile. A 5-page paper and a 20-page paper are simply different beasts. And often if you change the scale of the paper you have to change the nature of the assignment. It is hard to imagine reading two-dozen pages of an essay without some kind of outside research component. Often shorter English assignments have none.
A skilled teacher would be able to tell you this but still find ways of engaging you at your capacity. A bad teacher will blow you off. You are right to be angry if that happens. If you have the chance to go to college, you will find better experiences there. But in the meantime, it is possible to write a glimmering short paper without phoning it in, whether you have a shitty teacher or not.