I want to address the conflict that Rice calls upon, “That one can study and work with a body always in flux, always unstable, and always shifting is a paradox because higher has meant the mastery of mostly stable body of information” I want to contextualize this statement, even though I have a tendency to agree with it in some respects. I want to examine how composition is stable? Historically, the English language has seen several cultural movements, such as the humanism, romanticism, realism, gender theory….etc. If we know that there are several perspectives we can slip in and out of to study text, then how is it that we instruct and assess in a way that is conflicting with the very way we associate ourselves with the field and how come this conflict doesn’t initiate action?
I think it is because of the whole reason why we eventually opened up other literary lenses: the strong arm of Patriarchy. For too many years (and texts) we have been subjugated so much so, that the reasons for the onset of literacy are still pervasive to the field’s study, even today. This was/is educating for mass manipulation: to process a text that aids Westernization and religion (forms of control), only today, this manipulation is found among institutions that desire constructing who is permitted to be among these institutions and how they are accepted.
Thus, after contextualizing this conflict, it doesn’t seem all that complex. The conflict is there, not because English and composition studies is more complex than the effort to teach it, the conflict isn’t about pedagogy at all, it’s about control. The reason the paradox applies so naturally to what Rice calls, “The network” is because institutionally, a body of power cannot control the web. This calls upon policy that is debated on Capital Hill as I type: the attempt to control what one can access on the web. It’s proof that we aren’t looking to set standards to our composition, it’s that those who feel threatened by allowing the average writer to access other “average” writing that empowers. Thereby, removing the power inherent in education’s binaries. “Those who write and those who can’t” leaves no room for those who choose to. The binary is a view point that advocates the control of educating, specifically how we educate. The world wide web is uncontrollable, and as such, those in control will always fight to keep what they have controlled for eons under close watch.
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