Cooper : Really useful knowledge

In Marilyn Cooper's article "Really Useful Knowledge: A Cultural Studies Agenda for Writing Centers" she critiques the role of the University on the learning environment, particularly in writing centers. She says that she believes "students should be intellectually challenged in their writing classes, that they need to be engaged in a struggle over complex ideas that matter to them". She also suggest that the tutor be an "organic intellectual" who throws away the rules and the "inventing the university" http://firstyearwriting.wikispaces.com/file/view/Inventing+the+University.pdf type atmosphere. In other words, rather than be talked at and lectured by a teacher who follows the criteria, she believes students can benefit from a change in the learning experience, and should be lead by the type of teacher who can be both quirky, up-to-date, and challenging. Students learn better when they are faced with a topic of interest or current relevancy, and become more engaged when an alternate teaching method is used. This shows that tutors who work in a writing center must be able to stand out amongst the other teacher figures who float around the university and encourage the student to be somewhat independent. As a peer tutor we must be many things, grade oriented, encouraging, passive, authoritative, passionate, and we must grab the students attention. But we must not be mundane.

Cooper is the most realistic compositionist we have studied so far. As she examines Brooks article she states "But i also think that is is this assumption that writing center sessions must focus on 9improving individual papers that leads to the trap Brooks descrips, the trap of tutors serving as editors of the student papers." She agrees that fixing the writer must be the main focus of the meeting, but observes that it is nearly impossible to avoid correcting the paper itself. She is also aware that it is nearly impossible to pretend that students are more concerned about learning than a higher grade. She admitts that there is a huge focus on grades and states that the tutor should keep that in mind during any session.