Quote:
Originally Posted by kandwo
The point of reading classics is to have a common cultural framework and a general appreciation for the culture and history that one is surrounded by.
|
As things stand now, you usually don't get any appreciation for the culture from the school literature lessons. Quite the contrary.
Quote:
|
But school is horrible at teaching some sort of critical thinking and deeper analysis in my experience.
|
I agree with that wholeheartedly. There's too little emphasis on the skills that would be really useful in later life and too much emphasis on things a student forgets almost immediately after finishing school, because s/he never uses them in real life. Yes, yes... the argument is ''the general background" one, but IMO there's far too much of that and far too little of anything useful.