I so appreciate the continuing comments on "Why No Place at the Table," which was mentioned by DesignObserver recently. Many of the comments I've received put the blame for American designers' being functionally illiterate squarely on the shoulders of the public school system.Two things come to my mind here.
First, I went to public school in California--Terra Linda High School: a big, sprawling place that, at the time I was there, enrolled more than 2000 students. I am sure that plenty of people came out of that school functionally illiterate. But if they took writing with Patrick Skinner, they came out writing well, no matter how poorly they had written when they came to his class. It takes one motivating teacher and one semester of weekly writing assignments to train a person to write well.
I'm not saying that that person will be "a writer," but she will know where to put a comma, when it is "it's" and when it is "its," and all the rules of writing that my students do not know. Like drawing, writing is a skill, and anyone can learn the basics.
Second, because a person did not learn to write in high school does not mean he is doomed to drag himself through his life as a designer not knowing how to argue on paper, nor does it mean that he wants to do so. As I said, learning to write takes one semester. Of all the students I have encountered, not one has told me that writing is unimportant. I have never had a student tell me that she is not interested in learning to write well. I have never had a student tell me writing is valueless. Most students look sheepish when they turn in their papers. They feel inadequate to the task. But they are not uninterested. In fact, they look a bit desperate for help.
Perhaps I run into especially motivated students. Or maybe they fear me and feign interest. ( I can hope.) But I think we do students a disservice when we assume that they do not want to write. I think we need to teach them. We need to expect it of them-- and of ourselves.
Comments
I think that at least in large part it's related to people's personal sense of identity and goals, and their understanding of what these might require of them in the way of effort when it comes to writing.
I recently finished a grad degree in interior architecture at Parsons, having come into the program after many years as a writer and editor. As such, I expected that I'd probably be somewhat ahead of my classmates in terms of my writing abilities when it came time to write research papers for history and theory classes, but I was truly surprised at just how ahead I actually was--not that I'm some writing superstar, but still.
But what surprised me more what the kind of comments I heard from the other students about why they didn't care to even DO the writing assignments, or if they did, why the teacher shouldn't expect much: "I'm a designer, not a writer. I didn't come here for this." and "As long as I can come up with ideas and represent them visually, isn't that enough?" and "It's for writers to write about design--not designers."
And these other students were not mindless, doodling dimwits--it was a degree program geared toward older students who already had undergrad degrees and work histories in other areas (for some reason usually marketing and advertising), but who had finally figured out they'd be happier in design.
It seems they had never been much for writing in the first place, perhaps because of our woefully inadequate public school system, but they'd certainly had other chances to learn to write in college and beyond. They simply thought that, as designers, they shouldn't have to bother.
I found it interesting, and somehow sad.
I think that by inspiring students to gather a personal voice (and beating them over the head!) is the best way to promote interest in reading and writing...A personal voice forces the passive (i.e. reading) interest into the non-passive (i.e. writing)...
I have not encountered many courses which understand/promote design beyond a service that designers provide to their clients. And the clients are those who request and manage what the designers produce. Designers hence are not encouraged to exist as a creative force.
I think we should revise our curriculum in way that would motivate even the most intelligent, passionate students to rethink what constitutes inventive, design practices. Let's truly change the way people interact with the world around them.