Quote:
Originally Posted by outlander78
I agree, about reading and schools. In public school, we could read what we wanted. Starting in high school, the joy of reading was beaten out of us when we had to read numerous novels and poems that were of no relevance to modern day life. When you have to understand the history of a past era in order to understand the point of a book, that book is no longer suitable for a standard high school English class.
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I strongly disagree. The best history classes I had were English classes where the Prof spent time explaining the political, cultural, and historic events from the time period that the book was written. It helped me to understand why the author was focused on what he/she was focused on and made reading those books much more enjoyable.
While there were many books that I hated reading in high school (waves at the Bronte sisters) the point of English class is to learn how the English language is used and introduce young people to classic works. I might have hated the Bronte's but mist of my female classmates seemed to think that they were just wonderful.
I hated Algebra and Geometry, I still had to take them. They helped me develop a certain logical rigor that is applicable outside the classroom. I was never a fan of biology and chemistry (Why did I have to memorize the periodic table of elements again?) but that doesn't mean that I didn't learn something in those classes. Even if in the end all I learned was that there are times I have to apply myself and do my best when I don't find a subject interesting.
School isn't about students doing things that they find fun or interesting, it is about learning. Sometimes it is about learning how to make yourself do work you don't find interesting. It is great when students love what they are learning but that is not going to happen all of the time.
So bring on the Bronte and the Poe and other authors that teens think are rubbish. Their parents should be encouraging them to read stuff that they like at home outside of their school work. Let them learn to understand how English was used 100 years ago and use a dictionary to look up words that they don't know. On occassion, they will find that their are authors that they really love that they had never heard of before and would not find in a regular bookstore.