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Originally Posted by b0ned0me
I agree. I think it would make a lot more sense to teach children using texts which are old enough to have built up a body of analysis and prove themselves more than passing fads, but which are recent enough that the cultural context and language isn't such a huge barrier. There's more than enough post-ww1 literature to full most of a high-school curriculum, maybe with one or two older works to show how things have changed since the 17th century.
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An English teacher of mine had us read short passages from the Bible, in public school. In his words, this was not done to indoctrinate us, but to acquaint us with a few of the more often referenced passages in great literature.
Despite the uproar, I see his point. I think Shakespeare serves as a teaching tool less well with every passing year, but literature is rife with references and analogies to the Bard.
Same thing with Dante, even though I don't speak or read Italian (let alone
old Italian), the exposure to a bastardized translation was important to understanding themes in later readings.