I teach intheEnglish department atacollegein upstate New York, which every now and then meansteachingfreshmancomp, a kindofcrash course on writing coherent papers.
For many students, the mandatory, oft-lamented freshmanwriting class is their first exposure to those elements of personal growth that are central to leadership.
But much more importantly, in the American college system, the freshman and junior years are really there only to improve skills like critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing.