These new students in AP Lang (Better Title)

Vannevar Bush makes a good argument, I think.  Of course, it runs completely contrary to the scientific research that Lasker and Farber have in mind.  It is, therefore, I think also an argument for moderation in all things.  Balance: times of intense focus and structure and times of creative exploration without boundaries.  Actually, that sounds a lot like AP Lang.  And usually, it is that "creative exploration without boundaries" part that my students struggle with.  They are used to being told exactly how to do something.  They want rubrics.  They are comfortable there.  But the best writing I've ever read did not come from a checklist or a rubric.  And it certainly wasn't a five paragraph essay with a three pronged thesis.  This is a year where I will ask you time and again to find your own answers, to follow your intuition, to be bold and brave in thinking and experimentation.  Some of you will hate it and me for it.  You'll get impatient and frustrated and demand more structure.  You'll mutter things under your breath in class.  You'll shoot each other looks in class that reflect absolute and utter contempt. There will also be times when you are forced so tightly into a structure that you'll contemplate sacrificing a limb to fit inside (that's an exaggeration, of course). Maybe you'll feel a little more comfortable there.  But, it will still challenge you and make you wonder why you thought you had this whole writing thing completely under control.  No one who writes for real ever feels like they have it mastered.  After it is all said and done and the AP test is upon us and you feel (and you will feel this) that there is not possibly one more thing you could do to feel more prepared, you will look back and see your tremendous growth from having managed the balance. At the end of the year, students always write to me about the ways in which this discomfort made them grow as writers and as students. Sometimes, they apologize for those things they muttered under their breath in class.  But if they don't, I 'm okay with it.  And I don't take it personally.  Even if I'm supposed to.