Roberta Borkat "A Liberating Curriculum"

“A Liberating Curriculum” By Roberta F. Borkat
From a readers point-of-view
In “A Liberating Curriculum,” by Roberta Borkat, Borkat uses a sarcastic approach to get her lethargic students to realize the effect they are having on the educational system. Borkat in return offers an idea to give all her students an ‘A’ in all their classes after the second week of school. Borkat became disgusted when she had a student become livid with her because he plagiarized his paper from a well-known essay in the Literature world. She even had a few students with extenuating circumstances, not do so well on assignments and exams but still wanted a passing grade, even though, they did not put in the time or effort and did not show up for most of her sessions. Borkat hopes that in giving everyone a passing grade students will hopefully become more relaxed, and both the students and teachers will be able to do the things they love the most with their time. Borkat believes that by focusing on the negative aspects that teachers are being faced with on a daily basis, will expectantly open her students and readers eyes to the ignorance that teachers must repeatedly put up with.
Roberta Borkat utilizes ethos in several ways. Borkat tells her prospective readers about how she has been dedicated in the field of education for over twenty years. When Borkat claims, “laboring as a university professor for more than 20 years under a misguided theory of teaching,” verify that her experience as a university professor gives her the qualities to recognize when there is a problem that needs to be faced. Readers may acknowledge the fact that Borkat has been truly dedicated in this field long enough to point out several problems wrong with the educational system today. Borkat states, “I threw away numerous hours annually on trivia: . . . grading and explaining examinations; . . . holding private conferences with students; reading countless books; buying extra materials . . . endlessly worrying about how to improve my teaching,” Borkat is simply making her readers aware of all the time, effort, blood, sweat and tears, she has put into her students and profession. Some readers may praise Borkat for all of her efforts she has put into making it possible for her students to recognize the importance of the criteria she has placed before them, myriad sums of time.
When it comes to presenting pathos, Borkat does not hold back on expressing her emotions towards her students, fellow colleagues, and eventual readers. Borkat insists, “I humbly regret that during all those years I have caused distress and inconvenience to thousands of students while providing some amusement to my more practical colleagues,” this suggests that Borkat believes that in all her decades of teaching, instead of bringing her learners knowledge, understanding, and possessions they can use throughout their lives in their own fields of profession, she has brought them pain and inopportuneness, which has in turn made her fellow equals amused. Borkat reports, “One or two forlorn colleagues may even protest that . . . such authors as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton and Swift are intrinsically valuable. I can empathize with these misguided souls . . . After all, their bodies are dead. Why shouldn’t their ideas be dead, too,” insists that teachers are wasting their time teaching students about such satirists, when the students do not care about the topic. Instead, the teachers should just teach about things which will actually catch their students’ attention, such as “MTV and People magazine.”