The Need For Writing Across the Curriculum

The issue of education is one that receives lip-service in Pakistan. The basic problem however is not just with the curriculum. There is chronic under-investment in education with certain government minsters favouring the private education system.

In most cases, until recently, a new primary school teacher has barely graduated from secondary school. If poorly educated teachers teach infants, those children will grow up illiterate, and not interested in educating themselves. What is needed is not teenaged primary teachers but entry qualifications to involve at least three or four years of post-secondary education.

I have long been a proponent of countries such as Pakistan starting from scratch and designing a curriculum to match their specific situations. Pakistan is a land rich in natural resources and a potentially huge labour-force. With the right investment in education and health, there is no reason why Pakistan`s people cannot become the fifth or sixth largest economy in the world in a matter of years.

There is of course the old argument - money has to go to the defence budget. If we look at that argument we can see that much of the budget goes on maintaining a large poorly-equipped infantry force and a few prestige projects like the never-ending F16 saga. I say cut the infantry by at least one-third and get rid of some prestige projects. Split the savings between education, health and new defence projects. Why send your soldiers on foot when you could build them a couple of thousand decent APC`s to replace that pile of crap M113`s. Instead of sending large delegations abroad to mull over other countries military industries, look within Pakistan. Pakistani`s are not idiots - they too can manufacture advanced technology like fighter jets. All it takes is some faith from the government.

By investing large amounts on indigenous projects, you create job opportunities, raise your technology threshold and boost your economy. Why bother to buy anything for defence from foreign companies? When push comes to shove and a war looms, you don`t want to be begging foreign nations to send you spare parts. You want to be confident that those new fighter jets and APC`s will get spare parts from the factories you built in your own country. You will ask yourself why you feared military sanctions all those years ago?

Another important area to invest in is a strong air force and a NAVY. Some foolish officials still believe the Pakistani Navy should be a coast guard. What they fail to appreciate is that a coast guard can do little against the warships that India will inevitably send during a war. What Pakistan needs is a strong, self-reliant, indigenously-built navy. Aircraft carriers (air defence ships as India likes to call them), crusiers, frigates, minesweepers, patrol craft, resupply ships and especially submarines. Give your defence forces a bigger toolkit to fight with and give your economy much needed security.

Along the way, that spare cash will improve your schools and hospitals without jeopardising national defence.

I know my reply here diverges a little, but I think the problem is a lot bigger than just the curriculum.

ok will check then, thanks

Urstruly,

I didn`t state the problem at all because it was one of the challenge problems stated in the article :)

Regards,
Irfan.

Omar,

Well thank you for not allowing me to procrastinate! (kidding) Acha, I`ve sent you an email already.

Irfan

I guess you are right. However, confusion arose when you did not state the problem well. The equation a^2+b^2=(a+b)^2 should have been assigned a statement mentioning that it was assumed to be true and then all the exrcise below could have been used as a criterion to check the validity of our supposition. But your procedure is correct.

Urstruly,

The problem was to demonstrate the correctness or incorrectness of the statement (a + b)² = a² + b². If someone doesn`t know that (a + b)² != a² + b² then just telling him/her that (a + b)² = a² + b² + 2ab isn`t much of an explanation is it? I did it using even more elemtary principles, which I suppose was the object of the exercise anyway.

Regards,
Irfan.

irfan hamid

according to the the elementary level algebra (a+b)^2 = a^2+b^2+2ab and is not equal to a^2+b^2 as you wrote down. That`s called much ado about nothing.

samina im serious -- plz do it sooner than later (i sound like an officious editor type there) :)

Bina Shah,

I haven`t had any formal training in writing, even then I would like to take a stab at one of the problems proposed in your piece, namely explaining whether (a + b)² = a² + b² is true or false. My explanation goes like this:

``We have (a + b)² = a² + b² which can be rewritten as:

(a + b) x (a + b) = a² + b² (i)

Let us assume that a + b = c, and we replace the first a + b in (i) with c. This gives us:

c x (a + b) = a² + b² (ii)

Now we can see that the left hand side of (ii) can be decomposed using the distributive law, giving us:

c x a + c x b = a² + b² (iii)

Now we substitute c = a + b into (iii), giving us:

(a + b) x a + (a + b) x b = a² + b² (iv)

By applying the distributive law on the right hand side of (iv) again, we get:

a² + ab + ab + b² = a² + b² (v)

Simplifying (v) leaves:

2ab = 0

Which is clearly false except for one of the following three degenerate cases:

1) a = 0
2) b = 0
3) a = 0 and b = 0

And in the degenerate case (i) can be rewritten to eliminate the 0 term(s) and transform the equation into a true one (the discussion of degenerate cases are advanced enough so that anyone studying them would surely have a firm grasp over the original anyway).``

The whole point of this little exercise was that I disagree with the article. Writing, literature, poetry, they all have their place. But, my point of view is that they should be taught and taught well upto highschool (FSc) level. After that, only those that need writing as a primary tool in their professions (writers, journalists, literature majors) should be taught writing, the others should spend the same time strengthening their knowledge and grasp over their own domaines.

I am an engineer, I have worked in the industry, and now I am a graduate student, so I would be confident in saying I have a grasp on the issues at hand. And since I am only an engineer and nothing more, I will not venture a guess and assume I know what is needed and what is not for the curricula of other fields. Me and my Pakistani friends in grad school feel that what we lack most is a stronger base in mathematics, and most of us blame our secondary education system, specifically FSc, which is burdened with so much excess baggage and our undergraduate education, which was not vigorous enough in mathematics.

My boss (when I was working) was a brilliant man. Even though he was inarticulate and could not write well even if his life depended on it, yet, he was widely respected and revered as a professional. He was admired by his subordinates, respected by his superiors and envied by his peers, simply because of his technical prowess. Lack of writing or communication skill did not become a hindrance to his career.

The French are famous for not knowing english (or knowing it very poorly). Yet French researchers routinely write research papers in english (because research done in english has a global impact). Their research papers are filled with grammatical and spelling errors, but they are still highly regarded because of their riguour and quality. You see, in engineering, what matters is what you have to say, not how you say it.

If your rebuttal to my argument will be that these people would be more successful if they had better writing skills, then let me say that it is a zero-sum game. An increase in one domain must be matched by a decrease in another (fixed number of classes support this theory). And in my opinion, the loss suffered due to the decrease in technical competency would outweigh the advantage gained due to the increase in expressiveness.

Regards,
Irfan.

Saminasha #13
Good luck with your course!

Omar,

Will do.

Urs,

If only lightening would strike you...

saminasha is a teacher of literary genres? The news has hit me like a bolt of lightening. God please save poor nurses and someone please hide the syllabus. Thank you.

I wholeheartedly agree with Malik99. Although he was a bit harsh, but shouldn`t we be harsh when we see someone maligning someone`s faith and belief? In following West`s lead, we have gone so far in being a lightning rod to anyone daring to wear hijab that we have ourselves become the same intolerant lot we pretend to fight against.

Nazar Sahib - if you are so much against ``beliefs``, then perhaps you need to rid yourself of the ``belief`` that muslim girls only wear hijab when they are beaten into doing so by men. Majority of girls I know in US wear hijab out of their own free will (I have chosen not to wear hijab at this time)

This is the sort of ``critical thinking`` (as suggested by Bina`s essay) that we all need to employ :)

hi samina -- interesting what you wrote -- and since u r a teacher would you be interested in writing about this particular course for dawn`s weekly education page -- if so mail me --

Sadna,

Thanks! I hope the nurses feel the same way after the course has finished....Ghosts went over pretty well and tom. we`ll be discussing and writing about the Threnstrom article (which I posted in my ilog). I`m going to suggest that they experiment with parallel charts and get a workshop group together outside of the classroom...

Saminasha #9
Interesting list!

Nice article.I remember reading Sabeer Bhatia`s interview when he was praising education system in the west.He was assigned to write an essay in college in U.S.A. He presented historical views on the subject and then a short conclusion based on the sources he quoted.He was given very poor marks. The teacher`s take was-``I will give you numbers only if you have something original to offer.`` In India, such type of thinking is normally not promoted.Colleges and schools are basically assembly lines .Wonder why?
malik99 #4 makes a very good point when he says teachers have to be trained in critical thinking.
Educational scientists must put their heads together and design the syllabus for the courses designed for teachers-like B.Ed. and L.T., so that they can in turn encourage creative thinking in the students.

Hi Omar! Yes, I wrote that it first appeared in the Dawn Education Supplement. Somehow the note didn`t get added to the piece. So let the record show that this piece was originally printed in the Dawn!

Yup...WAC is the buzzword in academia, esp. universities serving working poor and immigrant communities.

I`m teaching a writing intensive Literary Genres course to a class of nurses. These women have worked in their fields (pediatrics, emergency room, ob/gyn, AIDS, nursing homes) for several years and have a great deal of empirical intelligence. Their union 1199 and the CUNY adult ed. program is making their formal education possible by making it affordable.

In this course I`ve asked them to think through writing, of the various roles they inhabit in the course of the day, the research projects they`d like to investigate, to experiment with various literary forms in creative pieces and to evaluate what an interdisciplinary approach to health care might yield. Oh yes, and study the devices and forms of various literary forms.

I planned an interdisciplinary syllabus for them:

1. Ghosts

a groundbreaking play by Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen, one of the great pioneers of mod. drama broke many Norwegian taboos by daring to write about syphillis in a middle class family who lived in the country. Some of the themes we are discussing are the metaphors of stigma attached to disease, the doubleness of the characters in their public and private presentations and how disease is silenced in family geneology, larger communities and society.

2. The Writing Cure

an article by Melanie Threnstrom in which she discusses the use of narratology in medicine as a way of understanding evolving roles as patients and healthcare workers. Also discusses the methodologies and goals of literature and creative writing for med students. Clearly, very few docs are as talented as Aamir Ansari...

3. Wit

A fairly literate movie about a John Donne scholar who is dying of cancer. Expository of medical institutionalization, mortality, gender, individual alienation. Emma Thompson makes this movie.

4. The Resurrection of Generosity

A critical study by Arthur Frank who uses various interdisciplinary sources to look at the various narratives of healthcare workers-particularly nurses and doctors-and how they envision an improved healthcare system.

5. Martin, Emily. ``Medical Metaphors of Women’s Bodies: Menstruation and Menopause``

Greek classicist systems of understanding/categorizing/explaining women`s bodies in a manner congruent to the culture and society at that time.

6. Poetry by James Merrill, Linda Hull, Jane Kenyon, Donald Hall.

Kenyon and Hall, two excellent poets are of particular interest as they were married. Hall nursed his wife Kenyon until she died. Both wrote about their lives together with the disease.

I would have liked to assign A. Verghese`s My Own Country and the AIDS literature coming out of India-but we have a very short summer session. Maybe next time.

Malik,

Thanks for your observations on the piece and on teaching and learning. However I must protest at your comments towards Nazar sahib. He was talking about something I wrote in last week`s Review (Dawn), and you really ought to read that piece first. I wrote it in a very irreverent tone so if you take issue with the ``Hell will be hotter than this`` response you should direct your criticism towards me. I really think you owe Nazar sahib an apology. You were overly harsh with him and I don`t think he deserved it.

hi bina -- whats up -- shouldnt this article have been credited to another publication where it first appeared, like 2 months ago? :)

Nazar sahib,

I agree with what Malik says, though to not such a vehement degree. Holding an opinion is not bigotry, but making it public (like you did) when it disparages a certain segment of society does fall under that category. I believe in God, yet I am not very religious, does my belief in God legitimize me as a target for your mockery, even to a lesser degree than the burqa-clad woman? What if I tell you that I don`t drink alcohol even though I live in a land where it is cheaper than bottled water? Would that make me laughable in your eyes, or just plain stupid? If so, would I be justified in mocking you for partaking of wine? Why does tolerance only have to mean the forebearance showed by the religious to the agnostics or the atheists? Should it not be a two-way street? Or would you rather have your cake and eat it too?

Regards,
Irfan Hamid.

Malik99 # 3

(The only difference is that they do it in a violent way and people like you do it in a refined way. But its the same bigotry)

As long as we can confine our bigotry to ourselves and not force it on others, I guess it is OK.

We all hold our opinions if that is termed as bigotry.

Bina - Great essay! Indeed critical thinking is important in bringing a context to problem solving. But if I were a student in pakistan, I would be afraid to show my critical thinking skills in a board exam. For most graders, a ``right answer`` is more important (and easy to grade) than an answer which is taxing to their brains. This results in students rotting the ``safe`` answers to all problems. Lets face it, for students all over the world, grades matter more.

Even the examples that your have provided in your essay, such as type of critical thinking questions in maths etc, would end being rotted by students if the right framework is not present where their efforts could be rewarded.

So yes, it is important to teach our students the value of critical thinking. But it is also important for us train the current crop of teachers in critical thinking as well. As long as our school grading system penalizes critical or ``out of the box`` thinking, merely formulating ``writing across curriculum`` policy may not bear much fruit.

NHK # 1 - You wrote ``And her reply that ``Hell would be hotter than this`` was hilarious. My wife read your article again and again and found this very amusing``

Nazar Sahib - A few years ago i visited hawaii. On one of the islands, there is a large piece of barren and rocky land marked by a few sign posts and shrubs, with smoke coming out of the ground. Scientists say it is because of some volcanic activity that has been going on underground for thousands of years. The native Hawaiians think God lives there. If any tourist wants to, he/she can walk on that land and see those ``smoke holes`` up close. But ALL of them, out of respect for hawiian belief, stayed away from that land and looked at it from a distance - lest they trample on the ``land of God``. No one thought that Hawiian belief was ``hilarious``. No one laughed at the ``stupidity`` of this belief or tried to provide a ``sceientific evidence`` that it in fact is volcanic activity that is making the smoke come out.

I contrast that to your intolerant and bigoted reaction upon reading a burka clad woman`s belief. Your finding her response ``hilarious`` is a sad commentary on the intolerance and bigotary of an apparentely ``enlightened`` elite in Pakistan. Instead of laughing off her belief for which she is willing to suffer the summer heat, you should have perhaps taken a lesson from it.

Nazar sahib - not sure how much world you have seen, but I invite you to visit New York City. You will notice that in the dead heat of summer, Jewish man walk around in the sun wearing long black overcoats and heavy balck hats. Now, I doubt you will tell anyone that it is hilarious. Because if you do, they might throw you behind bars for anti-semitism or for inciting hatred. It is only in Pakistan that bigoted people like yourself can get away with making fun of a belief of an innocent woman which does not harm you in any way, shape or form.

Sadly people like you belong to the same wretched class of intolerant pakistanis who shoot at the mosques, kill sunnis and shias, or spread horror because others belief in heaven and hell contradict theirs. The only difference is that they do it in a violent way and people like you do it in a refined way. But its the same bigotry.

:)

Thank you Nazar Sahib. And please give my salams to Mrs. Nazar!

Bina Shah


Couldn`t agree with you more.


(Your article in Tuesday Review where you asked the Burqa-clad woman how she could wear that in the heat of karachi (40 plus). And her reply that ``Hell would be hotter than this`` was hilarious. My wife read your article again and again and found this very amusing)