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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
But then I also don't place a higher "enjoyment quotient" on a new favorite author I happened to discover by dumb luck than I do the new favorite author that I got steered toward by recommendation/suggestion/class either.
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Interesting. I always much preferred discovering new authors by myself to having a book put in my hand and told to read it. I think my mother and grandmother must have known this although I don't ever recall having articulated the thought at the time. In hindsight, I suspect that they strategically left certain books about that I might "discover" them. That's how I first became acquainted with Alan Garner and Graham Greene.
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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I was being given the easiest homework a literate kid could ever imagine: read a book, then let's talk about it. *shrug*
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Fortunately, such homework was not especially challenging for me at the time so much as it was uninteresting. Perhaps you had better discussions.
However, as I now work primarily with struggling readers, I can see the issue from another perspective. For students who already struggle with reading, the task is made even more difficult when the material is in antiquated English. That is what leads me to question what the purpose of an English class should be and how best it might be achieved.
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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
People who believe the purpose of a "regular" English class should somehow include the task of attempting to instill a general love for reading in as many students as possible are never going to see eye to eye with those who believe the class should be teaching English and introducing them to the foundations of literature; to be built upon (or not) later in life.
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That may well be so. Given my experience with struggling and reluctant readers, I tend to see a greater need for developing competent readers than in edifying them with the Classics. I'm not against the Classics, except when they become unnecessary barriers to literacy, as they seem to be for a good number of students.