My love/hate with Bartholomae

This class has opened my eyes to teaching in a whole new way, which is slightly terrifying.  Before this course, I felt like I could walk into a writing class and kick ass as a writing professor.  Now, I am grappling with theory upon theory and study upon study as what is and will be successful in my class.  I've always had a secret fondness for Bartholmae even though I find him to be a bit too rigid, but I agree with him in his essay, "Inventing the University" that there definitely is an academic voice that the students must write in to be successful in academia.  However, I know that often times this voice stifles the students because they are trying to speak in a way that is foreign to them.  I may not know everything about teaching or how to kick ass as a writing professor like I thought I would, but I do know that when students try to conform their writing too much so it meets their professor's expectations, it comes out like they are trying to speak a foreign language.  The sentences are jumbled, their use of words is often incorrect, and their ideas are skewed and unclear.  I witness this everyday and it pains me to see.  Unfortunately, I was exactly the same as those students when I did my undergrad.  I was completely unconscious of the fact that I wrote like that, and I'm sure if I looked back on my own papers, i would grimace.  Now, I have learned to keep my voice, which is a little sarcastic, painfully organized, not full of extensive vocabulary, long winded sentences and maybe not considered academic, but it's  my voice and I won't change it.  (And if I were to try, it would come across as a jumbled mess).  This is something I want to pass onto my students.  There is a happy medium, no I don't write in slang in my essays but I share my thoughts as I have them.  I have invented my own university and I want to show my students that they can do the same.

Anyways guys, if anyone read that, thanks for this semester.  Probably the most applicable class I've taken here for my future career.  Have a great summer! And to those who are graduating, congratulations!