Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
It is my opinion that questions of literacy and competence should be dealt with long before reading the Classics becomes part of their daily school routine. But if they do slip through the cracks that far, for that long, then surely one-on-one tutoring makes more sense than changing the curriculum for everyone.
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You might be surprised at the prevalence of students with learning disabilities. Apparently, in the US, learning and attention issues affect about 1 in 5 children.
https://www.ncld.org/news/state-of-l...s#ch1howcommon
I suspect that the numbers in Canada are fairly similar. I certainly see a good number of such students. And there are many more which somehow manage to scrape by. But scraping by and being made to feel stupid comes at a cost to both the students and society.
Not sure that there are sufficient resources to accommodate that number of students with individual tutoring. So why put up unnecessary barriers to literacy?
I read 5 of Shakespeare's plays in high school. Mandated. Bored the heck out of me. If the intention was to drive me away from Classic literature, they very nearly succeeded. If that is the common ground which schools hope to establish, then they seem to have been very successful.
Fortunately, I discovered other authors outside of school that appealed to me, including Christopher Marlowe. Can't recall how I discovered him. Must have been some reference in something else I was reading at the time which piqued my curiosity. Did a book report on Dr. Faustus which I thoroughly enjoyed. However, had we been mandated to read Dr. Faustus and then thoroughly dissected it in class, I suspect my enjoyment would not have been quite the same.