Although the general gist of what you're replying to certainly evokes a response in me, I was not going to reply until I read your response and agreed with it's point.
Having taught writing in universities over a six-year-long stint, my experience agrees with yours.
Pragmatically, the reasons the assignments are structured they way they are isn't because bad faith by instructors, but rather because of the needs of students.
I don't blame the students-- they have a lot of shit going on.
At the same time, you're absolutely correct that making assignments in the general form we see them has more to do with what students actively demand: they absolutely do not want the kind of assignment suggested by the GP because anything other than a list of boxes to check causes profound anxiety in students.
Our comment threads here are excellent examples of what short writing prompts and assessments could look like, and I've gotten invaluable feedback on my writing from participating in internet threads. In this form of writing, there are distinct grades in the form of karma. And there are real stakes for communication, as I can easily fail to get my points across or even upset people. I even sometimes get useful responses that improve my understanding of the world or some topic.
As useful as that practice can be, if I had my academic advancement tied to these prompts it would cause me a great deal of stress: how the hell do I know in which contexts someone will read any given post?
In the context of the general internet I have a lot of easy ways out. I don't have to listen to dumb people, the poorly informed, or malicious trolls.
In the context of a classroom, I can't just tell the teacher "that's just, like, your opinion, man" because they are going to write down a letter and that's going to make my life easier or harder.
I'm not a big fan of contemporary education for reasons I could develop in book-length diatribes (I quite a PhD during my dissertation), but I get where students are coming from when they demand some clarity on how they are being assessed.
Having taught writing in universities over a six-year-long stint, my experience agrees with yours.
Pragmatically, the reasons the assignments are structured they way they are isn't because bad faith by instructors, but rather because of the needs of students.
I don't blame the students-- they have a lot of shit going on.
At the same time, you're absolutely correct that making assignments in the general form we see them has more to do with what students actively demand: they absolutely do not want the kind of assignment suggested by the GP because anything other than a list of boxes to check causes profound anxiety in students.
Our comment threads here are excellent examples of what short writing prompts and assessments could look like, and I've gotten invaluable feedback on my writing from participating in internet threads. In this form of writing, there are distinct grades in the form of karma. And there are real stakes for communication, as I can easily fail to get my points across or even upset people. I even sometimes get useful responses that improve my understanding of the world or some topic.
As useful as that practice can be, if I had my academic advancement tied to these prompts it would cause me a great deal of stress: how the hell do I know in which contexts someone will read any given post?
In the context of the general internet I have a lot of easy ways out. I don't have to listen to dumb people, the poorly informed, or malicious trolls.
In the context of a classroom, I can't just tell the teacher "that's just, like, your opinion, man" because they are going to write down a letter and that's going to make my life easier or harder.
I'm not a big fan of contemporary education for reasons I could develop in book-length diatribes (I quite a PhD during my dissertation), but I get where students are coming from when they demand some clarity on how they are being assessed.