When teaching something as ambiguous but expansive as basic writing, an instructor must first establish their goals. They should also attempt to ascertain the goals of students. Ideally, these goals should meet, even if they differ slightly. The basic writing instructor’s goal is a stop, after all, on the student’s path, not the destination, but for the stop to be helpful in any way, the end-goal ought to be known.
With the spread of open admissions colleges in the 1960s-1970s, the goals of students were going to inevitably shift, and they continue to develop today. Mina Shaughnessy, in the introduction of her book, Errors and Expectations, gives a visualization of that initial shift in student body: “academic winners and losers from the best and worst high schools, the children of the lettered and the illiterate…some who could barely afford the subway fare to school and a few who came in the new cars their parents had given them as rewards for staying in New York to go to college” (2). Colleges, especially CUNY, still have that range of students, which has perhaps diversified further, even as tuition fees go up.
Probably partly thanks to open admissions and the push of the non-elite to higher education, college has become expected for anyone who wants to make it in this world. Not everyone can be Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg and become t-shirt-wearing billionaires without a degree. Even administrative assistants are expected to have degrees nowadays. A recurring theme even in Shaughnessy’s excerpts of student work in basic writing courses is the importance of gaining knowledge and experience, and the need for college if you want a good job.
On Teaching, Writing, and Teaching Writing 