Quote:
Originally Posted by snipenekkid
reading and analyzing classic literature teaches things beyond basic reading skills. There is realizing when you don't understand a word or phrase it's OK to look up the meanings, it teaches abstract analysis, the idea that everything is open to interpretation so almost all opinions about a work are valid, it teaches one how to defend your interpretation of whatever is being studied but also how to accept you might be wrong. It also instills the ability to discuss often controversial ideas in a mature calm manner.
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If you're lucky. I never had a lit class that fit that, with five teachers in two languages. Religious education, yes, maybe history, but definitely not literature. The teachers had their "official" interpretation, and tried to railroad us into it.
Most blatant example was when we talked about Macbeth. The teacher asked what "when the battle's lost and won" meant. To me that was non-information - one side loses, one side wins - like you find in prophecies. ("You will destroy a gret kingdom", or whatever the words were).
Teacher said, "no, that's wrong". After no-one suggested what he wanted to hear, he told us it meant "nothing is as it seems", and then he had the class repeat "nothing is as it seems" in chorus, to make sure we all got it.
Mind, I also like to blame the choice of class reading from my last German teacher on putting me off "Literature". He was rather fond of books about sexually frustrated men in their midlife crisis, which are of course terrible interesting for teenage girls.</sarcasm>