[Teaching_Composition] Unlearning more important than learning in comp?

[David R. Russell]

Hello all,

I just got back from teaching FYC and had a question I'd to get help 
with.  A student got his paper back from me and commented (within my 
hearing, deliberately and half-playfully) that in high school his 
English teachers told him not to take a position on an issue, but he 
got "ripped" on this paper because he didn't take a position.  He's a 
good writer (did great analysis without taking position) and a good 
student, so I know he "heard" us talk about the importance of taking 
a position of the paper (it was called, by the way, a 'position 
paper').  But the old learning trumped the new.

Students know 'how to write' when they come in to my classes, in 
certain ways.  But often to learn to write in new ways they have to 
unlearn.  It's a new game.

It made wonder if it's really Unlearning to write in FYC that is the 
greater challenge than Learning?  Has anyone had similar experiences?

-- 
David