Quote:
Originally Posted by ApK
Hitch is saying that reading those kinds of classics builds discipline of thought.
Katsunami is saying they require discipline of thought going in.
To me, it sounds like Hitch is from the "no-pain-no-gain lift heavy weight until you are strong" gym, while Kat is of the "play sports you love, ride your bike, go backpacking and eventually you'll be strong enough to lift heavy weights" gym.
I have no data on this, but it's interesting.
For myself: never read the denser classics when I was young, never had that kind of discipline, yet I did well enough on the SATs to join Mensa, and loved Logic and Language in college.
From my single data point, and my life experience I tend to side with Kat in general.
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The problem as I see it is what's being pushed on the kids to read in school turns them off to reading. If I wasn't already a reader by the time I got there, I might have been turned off to reading because most of what we had to read was awful. And then to have to study it made what was awful into something even worse. So really, get the teachers to read something more modern that the kids might actually enjoy or even relate to. Kids don't relate to these moldy old classics. It has nothing to do with life as it is now and they need something they can relate to. Shakespeare is not a good idea. It really puts kids off reading. It's written in a way that is hard to understand and IMHO, it doesn't help them by being forced to read Olde English when they won't ever have to do it again and a lot won't.
Teachers have no idea how they are turning kids off to reading by picking the wrong books for them to read in school. Let's find something modern to read they will work a lot better then these old books that kids don't relate to. All it does is turn them off from reading.