Orality and Literacy,Intimacy and Alienation: The eternal,internal, contradictions of teaching composition

This is a personal account of a college English teacher's continual examination of the sacrifices demanded of his students when they enter writing classes. It is an attempt to encourage students to maintain a critical awareness of the loss of their oral culture and see the limitations of the gain from the literary culture that they immersed themselves in when they began their school career. Literary resources are examined, specifically the writings of Franz Kafka, to illustrate the nature of oral and literate cultures and the demands of each. There is an account of the author's first day at public school as an illustration that helps him to devise teaching methods that acknowledge the validity of students' rebellion against school (literacy) while at the same time developing ways for students to be more accomplished writers.