Taking Writing Seriously: Responding to Straub

Editing student work is much more controversial and challenging than I originally thought. My experience is limited to admissions testing, where the student does not see their test after submitting it, so I only make notes that make sense to myself and my fellow administrators. So the idea of writing for a student that will stress and overanalyze my every word makes the process that much more daunting and unappealing.

Straub claims that you have to write as many positive notes as negative- but what if the work doesn't merit that? What do you do with a piece of writing that is just so bad that there are few redeeming characteristics? If the spelling, the grammar, the syntax, the clarity, the content etc. are all bad, incorrect or outright boring?

I know that not all student work will be this way, but what if one of your 30 daily students always turns in subpar work? What do you do for a student that puts forth some effort (the non-efforts warrent little to no effort in return) but constantly disappoints? They either do not have the ability, the maturity, or the organization of thought to get down on paper what you believe they are capable of?

And back to those students that put in no effort...do we just fail them and pass them along in the system? If they show no spark, no interest and especially no aptitude in a particular subject, who are we serving by forcing that curriculum down their throats?

I don't have experience with the public school beyond my own k-8 experience, and I was a good student in a relatively good school district. So I don't really know what it means to have students in continuance school, or requiring a GED because they couldn't pass the basic requirements to advance between the grades. What do you write on a student's paper that doesn't care? How do teach them to care? And if you can't, should you even try. It's a teacher's job to try, but not every student will have the acquired skills to digest what you have to teach at the exact moment in their life that they take your class. So what do you do with them. Make them an aide? Have them hand out the papers, help you grade other work so they hopefully learn from example? Or do you expel them from the class as often as possible because you know they disrupt other students' learning?

Why praise what is not praiseworthy?