LOL-- yes, I'm (ahem) pretty familiar with how college faculty see things.
On the other hand, most of them are, in my experience, quite concerned with VALID assessment practices. Most institutions have clear guidelines for faculty to follow-- and they do; the "fiefdom" model in higher ed is a little bit out of date at this point, and while there are certainly still a few dinosaurs out there, most of them operate with a more open pedagogical view now, particularly younger faculty. We really
are working on our kid as well, and I agree-- I've been somewhat torn over this as well. It's one of the things that I loathe about this model, however-- that teachers pretty much NEVER see the students face to face, and cannot therefore use that kind of micro-feedback to make those tiny modifications that good educators ALWAYS do automatically in order to make learning more effective for students. It's a dance, and good educators all know it.
On my DD's side, she is still learning to be assertive enough to do
self- advocacy. It's a work in progress. She is also learning (as I noted up-thread) to tolerate really non-optimal conditions in a learning environment, so we definitely are taking the same POV on this score. DD
has to make adjustments-- when she CAN make them, that is. This is a grey area there. I'm not sure that: a) the teacher has the right to demand what he seems to be asking for, and b) that DD is flexible enough to deliver it (because frankly, I'm not-- and I've got a lot more experience writing for different audiences than either one of them).
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I've also had the idea that if plan A (that is, he's going to 'work' with my daughter to 'teach' her how to modify her writing style to accommodate his vision of things) falls through or proves unsuccessful...
{and just as a side note here, my DH and I have already got some concerns that he's tweaking her "voice" as a writer, and she's got a very good one that has been painstakingly developed under years of tutelage by Ms. Barracuda... we don't take that for granted, and we don't take tweaking that 'voice' lightly.}
well, then if Plan A falls through or is unsuccessful, then my suggestion is going to be that the two of them work through essay questions ORALLY. She knows the material, and can speak fairly eloquently about the issues involved. It's not right that she be
failing that portion of things because she can't adopt a different voice as a writer. Not when her writing style has nothing truly 'wrong' with it for a lot of her other teachers.
