Then and Now

[cat in a bag]

I remember not liking The Canterbury Tales or Dante's Inferno in high school, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Grade school, I remember not liking The Wind in the Willows and being disappointed in having to do an oral book report on it because I had picked it and then didn't like it. I have not revisited any of those stories.

I was always pretty good about dissecting the meanings/themes/whatever you want to call it. But I didn't like speaking in front of my class at all. Imagine my (proud) horror at having to speak to an entire gym full of people at graduation!

 

[blunthead]

I remember not liking The Canterbury Tales or Dante's Inferno in high school, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Grade school, I remember not liking The Wind in the Willows and being disappointed in having to do an oral book report on it because I had picked it and then didn't like it. I have not revisited any of those stories.

I was always pretty good about dissecting the meanings/themes/whatever you want to call it. But I didn't like speaking in front of my class at all. Imagine my (proud) horror at having to speak to an entire gym full of people at graduation!

I've never been very good at getting the symbolism and meanings and all. I've just not got that gene. This is probably why I don't get entire books, especially some classical ones. I'm glad I do enjoy literature anyway and as I do, the ones I do or mostly get.

 

[mjs9153]

I remember not liking The Canterbury Tales or Dante's Inferno in high school, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Grade school, I remember not liking The Wind in the Willows and being disappointed in having to do an oral book report on it because I had picked it and then didn't like it. I have not revisited any of those stories.

I was always pretty good about dissecting the meanings/themes/whatever you want to call it. But I didn't like speaking in front of my class at all. Imagine my (proud) horror at having to speak to an entire gym full of people at graduation!

I knew you were sharp as a tack,Cat,so you were the valedictorian of your class?What an honor!Our smart Cat..

 

[Walter Oobleck]

My algebra book just didn't grab me the first go round. I refused to solve for x...did not care for x...likewise y or z. But I stepped into that pool again and discovered I could do it if I learned step one. No step one...no step two and so forth and so on. Get step one, you can solve step two. So forth so on. But I'm still inclined to forgo the directions and wing it. And go back and learn step one if all else fails. If I pass on through I put an x on the calendar.

 

[blunthead]

My algebra book just didn't grab me the first go round. I refused to solve for x...did not care for x...likewise y or z. But I stepped into that pool again and discovered I could do it if I learned step one. No step one...no step two and so forth and so on. Get step one, you can solve step two. So forth so on. But I'm still inclined to forgo the directions and wing it. And go back and learn step one if all else fails. If I pass on through I put an x on the calendar.

Algebra was the first thing I thought of when I read the OP. It was the only high school class I feel asleep in. The fact that I passed the class was a mercy-passing; that and that the teacher just wanted to get of me.

When I found out I needed algebra for my Associates I had hope, though, because I'd grown up, had learned that I'm capable of things I hadn't believed possible of me; such as working as a ship fitter in a shipyard when the only work background I had was picture framing. And other wonders. Also, I seemed to remember my dad enjoying talking about algebra. Maybe it was a memory I'd for some reason buried of him trying to help me with homework. Anyway, I felt confident going in. Algebra was in its way my favorite class. I ended up tutoring it.

Maybe I should try some classical lit again.

 

[RandallFlagg19]

My algebra book just didn't grab me the first go round. I refused to solve for x...did not care for x...likewise y or z. But I stepped into that pool again and discovered I could do it if I learned step one. No step one...no step two and so forth and so on. Get step one, you can solve step two. So forth so on. But I'm still inclined to forgo the directions and wing it. And go back and learn step one if all else fails. If I pass on through I put an x on the calendar.

Boo Math books: they have no plot, story line, or dynamic characters, why would anybody want to read them.

 

[KINGSMAN129]

I remember not liking The Canterbury Tales or Dante's Inferno in high school, but those are the only ones that come to mind. Grade school, I remember not liking The Wind in the Willows and being disappointed in having to do an oral book report on it because I had picked it and then didn't like it. I have not revisited any of those stories.

I was always pretty good about dissecting the meanings/themes/whatever you want to call it. But I didn't like speaking in front of my class at all. Imagine my (proud) horror at having to speak to an entire gym full of people at graduation!

When you say Dante's Inferno, do you mean Dante's Divine Comedy?

 

[Grandpa]

Pretty much, the required books that I liked, I continued to like. The ones I didn't like, I continued to not like. The one exception was Lord of the Flies. I didn't like it in high school, got a passable score on the test because I listened carefully, and three or four years later picked it up and finished it in nothing flat. It was great.

The absolute worst was The Scarlet Letter. I seriously couldn't bear to get past page 20. There again, I listened carefully to the teacher and the class discussion and pulled a B+ on the test without ever having read the dreadful thing.

Tom Sawyer was my companion in about the fifth grade, thanks to my parents' library, and a little later, I read Huckleberry Finn as well. So when Finn was assigned, I had it knocked. Except I was familiar with the truncated version, the one without the family feud, so I stumbled a bit there, but caught up again.

The absolute best was To Kill A Mockingbird. I couldn't put it down. I still remember reading it in bed, by the dimness of the hall light, when the parents were still up and I was supposed to be asleep, and whispering furiously, "No, no, no!!" during one particular part of the story.

 

[blunthead]

Pretty much, the required books that I liked, I continued to like. The ones I didn't like, I continued to not like. The one exception was Lord of the Flies. I didn't like it in high school, got a passable score on the test because I listened carefully, and three or four years later picked it up and finished it in nothing flat. It was great.

The absolute worst was The Scarlet Letter. I seriously couldn't bear to get past page 20. There again, I listened carefully to the teacher and the class discussion and pulled a B+ on the test without ever having read the dreadful thing.

Tom Sawyer was my companion in about the fifth grade, thanks to my parents' library, and a little later, I read Huckleberry Finn as well. So when Finn was assigned, I had it knocked. Except I was familiar with the truncated version, the one without the family feud, so I stumbled a bit there, but caught up again.

The absolute best was To Kill A Mockingbird. I couldn't put it down. I still remember reading it in bed, by the dimness of the hall light, when the parents were still up and I was supposed to be asleep, and whispering furiously, "No, no, no!!" during one particular part of the story.

Mockingbird was one I read later as an adult and loved. By far one of the best novels I've read. I'd seen the movie version a few times and was impressed by how faithful it is to the original story.

 

[no bounce no play]

Then... I think the only book I read entirely was Johnny Tremain and that was in grade school. I didn't read books in high school, luckily I was very good at tests with multiple choice answers. I read the Classics comic book for Great Expectations and liked it

Now... I still have very little interest in reading most of the classics. I watch the movies though

 

[carrie's younger brother]

My algebra book just didn't grab me the first go round. I refused to solve for x...did not care for x...likewise y or z. But I stepped into that pool again and discovered I could do it if I learned step one. No step one...no step two and so forth and so on. Get step one, you can solve step two. So forth so on. But I'm still inclined to forgo the directions and wing it. And go back and learn step one if all else fails. If I pass on through I put an x on the calendar.

Algebra literally made me cry from frustration... In college!
Just reading your post with the Xs & Ys makes me shudder. It's the only thing in school that makes me feel dumber than a piece of wilted celery.

 

[Walter Oobleck]

Algebra literally made me cry from frustration... In college!

In high school, the same teacher who taught my old man taught me. Grace. Her fingers were bent with authoritarians, her hair was purple, and she ate mints, pink ones...I just caught a whiff of her perfume! In high school, it was the College Prep kids who took the math and science although everyone took algebra. Everyone else walked around with their hand up to their forehead, the index finger and thumb spelling out the letter ell. Never thought I'd be able to afford college, anyway, though there were always presents galore under the tree Christmas morning. Boot camp I thought wow look at all this clothing...until they handed us our first paycheck...just enough left to buy a razor and shaving creme. But volunteering did provide for funds and when I applied myself in college...screwy schedule, too...hour or two between classes...so it was off to the library, find a spot, dig in, ponder the symbolism of x, the metaphor of y, the finality of z...and I began to see a kind of logic to it. The world would be a happier place if we were provided time & motivation to solve for x.

 

[GNTLGNT]

Funny thing about talking in front of a group. You know how they say it's easier if you imagine your audience naked? Well, I was a bit confused when it came for me to give my oral report in Environmental Geology. I was the one who was indeed naked. Thank goodness for the podium. And my rock display.

...and good to know you had the stones to pull it off....

 

[cat in a bag]

I knew you were sharp as a tack,Cat,so you were the valedictorian of your class?What an honor!Our smart Cat..

Yes, I was. Small class, I beat the person behind me by a very slim margin. Something like half a point. You're too sweet. Because obviously...

When you say Dante's Inferno, do you mean Dante's Divine Comedy?

my brain has atrophied in the intervening years. Yes, that's what I meant, KINGSMAN. But in my defense, the Inferno part was the only one we were assigned. Not the whole thing, so Inferno is what I remembered.

 

[FlakeNoir]

...and good to know you had the stones to pull it off....

Such a bad combination of words... just saying.

Spoiler

Has anybody seen my halo?

 

[GNTLGNT]

Such a bad combination of words... just saying.

Spoiler

Has anybody seen my halo?

...oh perish the thought....it was a exactly the combination I had hoped and dreamed of...

 

[Kurben]

Ha that makes me think of SK and how he asked his professor and class why they couldn't just let a story be a story..and their condescension as they considered him some kind of troglodyte or something because he wasn't buying into their line of bs..I guess he who laughs last,laughs well..

Isn't that a scene from IT? Where Bill Denborough asks his teacher just that. I mean when he is in university. Has it happened to King in real life too?

 

[Kurben]

I always did the reading, but didn't enjoy it all. Loathed Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Magic Mountain in HS, but liked them slightly better when I re-read them as an adult. Still loathe Hemingway--overrated as hell. Couldn't get through Billy Budd, then or now. One I definitely liked better as an adult was Tess of the D'Urbervilles. Hardy is too much for HS students, IMHO.

Interesting to hear which book you read. I remember reading "Lord of the flies" by Golding first time as an assignment. Also Three men in a boat by Jerome K. Jerome. And Money in the bank by P.G. Woodhouse. And then of course some swedish authors like August Strindberg and Selma Lagerlöf (she was quite good at the spooky stuff when she wanted to by the way). I've read many english classics but have many holes when it comes to the american ones.

 

[mjs9153]

Isn't that a scene from IT? Where Bill Denborough asks his teacher just that. I mean when he is in university. Has it happened to King in real life too?

Yes,read his On Writing..and not just for that vignette,I found it fascinating to see where he has come from, and where he is now..

 

[Kurben]

Yes, I was. Small class, I beat the person behind me by a very slim margin. Something like half a point. You're too sweet. Because obviously...


my brain has atrophied in the intervening years. Yes, that's what I meant, KINGSMAN. But in my defense, the Inferno part was the only one we were assigned. Not the whole thing, so Inferno is what I remembered.

The inferno part is the most interesting one anyway. Look at the popes he meets down there! I wonder if they had imagined they would go to history as members of Dantes Hell?