Why English 101 has become a remedial course

This semester was one of the most frustrating in my eight years as an adjunct college "professor." Never have so many students simply bailed mid-semester. Never have so many entered EN 101 and 102 without a basic understanding of how to punctuate a compound sentence. Never have so many questioned the need for MLA format.

Perhaps the problem lies with what we're so focused on in high school: cramming the canon and prepping for standardized tests. Kim Brooks explains her frustration in Salon:

I've stared at the black markings on the page until my vision blurred, chronicling and triaging the maneuvers I will need to teach them in 14 short weeks: how to make sure their sentences contain a subject and a verb, how to organize their paragraphs around a main idea, how to write a working thesis statement or any kind of thesis statement at all. They don't know how to outline or how to organize a paper before they begin. They don't know how to edit or proofread it once they've finished. They plagiarize, often inadvertently, and I find myself, at least for a moment, relieved by these sentence- or paragraph-long reprieves from their migraine-inducing, quasi-incomprehensible prose.

Of course, the most common complaint about learning (and teaching) grammar is that it is sooooooo boring. Brooks agrees, and adds:

True, but then, teaching (and for that matter, learning) isn't always fun. Changing my kid's dirty diapers isn't fun. Dragging my fat ass onto a treadmill isn't fun. Helping my grandmother "fix" her computer isn't fun. Sometimes we do things not because they're fun but because they're important.