I have Farenheit 451. Maybe I'll read it over the weekend. Even if the power goes out as it's been forecast to do, I have two really bright camping lanterns.
On forced reading.
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And I am older than dirt and agree.Well, government oppression and good educational policy are two entirely different animals. Although, pubic schools are government funded so I guess you could argue the point.
If it were up to me, I'd institute a no electronic devices, social media, or visiting entertainment sites on school computers on campus policy kindergarten - HS. No need for it. Generations got by without being glued to a smartphone all day.
College is a different story. At that point, people are supposed to have somewhat of an idea of responsibility.
Of course, that is my cynical GenX bias kicking in
If worse comes to worst you can always burn some books to give you reading light.
....heretic!!!!!!.....If worse comes to worst you can always burn some books to give you reading light.
How 'bout just Harold Bloom books?
Oh, hell no!If worse comes to worst you can always burn some books to give you reading light.
I remember a poem by Goethe , Uber allen Wipfeln it was called. I liked it. Röda Rummet by August Strindberg (The Red Room), Money in The Bank by P.G. Wodehouse, Lord of the Flies by Golding. I'm not sure but i dont think we were supposed to read anything by an american author. Delano, Georgia, USA was a book i choose myself to write an essay about. I liked it very much. Written by Stuart Woods.
I took a romantic literature class. It was about Wordsworth other Romantic poetry. I was dismal at analyzing the stuff. I think my freshman year in college read Malcom X. It was great contrast to Martin Luther King. I know that I used to buy the Cliff notes on some book, could not drudge through. However, I feel that being exposed to all kinds of literature is great.
I have The Autobiography of Malcolm X in my TBR pile as we speak.
I can't remember there being much forced reading of set texts in my comp. school (age 11-16, when UK kids get kicked out; further education to 18 is optional, though these days even kids in work have to undertake a relevant study element to go along with their experience. That wasn't the case when my turn came in '89. It was the big boot and you were left to get on with it, whatever 'it' was - FE, FT work, YTS (Basically, FT work plus a day release at college in exchange for £29.50 a week. Yay! Not.)).
The closest we got was one of three English lessons per week being given over to 'private reading' in the first year there. You got to choose the book you wanted from the shelves in the classroom, or you could select something from the school library - the difference being you could take the library books home while the classroom books had to be returned at the end of the lesson. Most of the non-reader kids went for books from the classroom shelves. The odd few, me included, headed for the library. The bullying, going both ways, was 'fun'; you could actually see the embarrassment some kids felt at what they had to choose. One lad was still on basic primer-type books, and even his non-reader mates ripped into him. Our teacher said it might encourage him to work hard and improve. Not a bit of it; he only learnt to hate reading, and the reading lessons, even more, to the point that he eventually stopped turning up for them. The bell would ring, we'd all leave one classroom to head down to the English corridor, and at some point this lad would find his way outside and head home across the playing fields.
From the 2nd year to when I left I had the same English teacher. He was great overall but he had a thing for certain poems, so I got to analyse 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' and 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' four times. Imagine my delight, then, when I came to study English Lit. at degree level and found I had to analyse 'Stopping By Woods...' yet again. Go further and imagine my reaction to finding that my tutor's interpretation was quite different to the one I had been taught to produce (because 90% of that stuff at school is really 'Learn my interpretation of it').
There was forced reading in junior school (age 7-11) though. Forced listening, too. I hated the forced reads because they were typically below my reading level (11+ at 8, 14+ by 10, anything I liked by 12), and there were times when I left the class waiting for me to join the forced listen (which stopped when I was 10) because I was so engrossed in the book I'd chosen for myself.
But yeah, all the 'Why did the author choose this theme/image/whatever and what point do you think s/he is trying to make?' stuff only ever made me want to say 'I don't know. Ask them' or 'To make your tongue wag.' I never did say those things, of course, because I knew it'd never end well, but...man.
Of course things have changed now and my nephew and niece had to analyse set works. It's turned my nephew off reading completely, despite reading being something he had enjoyed when younger, while my niece found she doesn't mind Shakespeare but can't stand Steinbeck, at least not anymore. But even though the deadening effect of enforced reading is/was less with her, it's rare that she'll read for enjoyment.
The closest we got was one of three English lessons per week being given over to 'private reading' in the first year there. You got to choose the book you wanted from the shelves in the classroom, or you could select something from the school library - the difference being you could take the library books home while the classroom books had to be returned at the end of the lesson. Most of the non-reader kids went for books from the classroom shelves. The odd few, me included, headed for the library. The bullying, going both ways, was 'fun'; you could actually see the embarrassment some kids felt at what they had to choose. One lad was still on basic primer-type books, and even his non-reader mates ripped into him. Our teacher said it might encourage him to work hard and improve. Not a bit of it; he only learnt to hate reading, and the reading lessons, even more, to the point that he eventually stopped turning up for them. The bell would ring, we'd all leave one classroom to head down to the English corridor, and at some point this lad would find his way outside and head home across the playing fields.
From the 2nd year to when I left I had the same English teacher. He was great overall but he had a thing for certain poems, so I got to analyse 'Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening' and 'The Destruction of Sennacherib' four times. Imagine my delight, then, when I came to study English Lit. at degree level and found I had to analyse 'Stopping By Woods...' yet again. Go further and imagine my reaction to finding that my tutor's interpretation was quite different to the one I had been taught to produce (because 90% of that stuff at school is really 'Learn my interpretation of it').
There was forced reading in junior school (age 7-11) though. Forced listening, too. I hated the forced reads because they were typically below my reading level (11+ at 8, 14+ by 10, anything I liked by 12), and there were times when I left the class waiting for me to join the forced listen (which stopped when I was 10) because I was so engrossed in the book I'd chosen for myself.
But yeah, all the 'Why did the author choose this theme/image/whatever and what point do you think s/he is trying to make?' stuff only ever made me want to say 'I don't know. Ask them' or 'To make your tongue wag.' I never did say those things, of course, because I knew it'd never end well, but...man.
Of course things have changed now and my nephew and niece had to analyse set works. It's turned my nephew off reading completely, despite reading being something he had enjoyed when younger, while my niece found she doesn't mind Shakespeare but can't stand Steinbeck, at least not anymore. But even though the deadening effect of enforced reading is/was less with her, it's rare that she'll read for enjoyment.
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
I find this interesting - Andy is probably older than you but he actually joined the military at age 15, believe it or not. He didn't like school and couldn't wait to go make a living. I thought he was unique but if UK kids are 'kicked out' at age 16 then I guess his story was not that unusual. I think he just needed permission from his parents to leave school one year early.
I'm trying to imagine what it must have been like to leave school (permanently) at such a young age. I quit school, worked for a while, then ended up going back and did not graduate high school until I was 21! It gave me a new perspective, being in with a bunch of much younger classmates.
My mom left school at 15 too. I think the leaving age changed when compulsory exams were introduced (IIRC, around 1974). Until then the best and brightest were selected to stay on for an extra year and get actual qualifications.
By the time I left, your choice was i) leave school and find a job (no day release to college, so no professional quals unless you studied and paid for them yourself); ii) do a govt-approved YTS as outlined above (downside, you'd earn about a quarter of what other 16 y-os could, for technically more effort); iii) stay at school and study A-levels (for Advanced; the original exams sat at 16 being O - or Ordinary, though there were also CSEs for the kids no deemed clever enough to do the GCE/O-level); and iv) go to FE college, where you could study FT vocational and some professional courses, for example City and Guilds in Motor Vehicle Maintenance/Repair or BTEC Level 1/2 in Accountancy, Computer Programming or Business and Finance.
There have been some moves towards keeping kids in compulsory education to 18, but there's a fair bit of opposition so they always get fudged. Right now, kids have to do continuation maths and English to 18 regardless of whether they achieved a GCSE (the replacement for the old GCE/CSE model) pass or not, and they also have to be in some form of education, employment or training (when I left, secret option v was the dole; you were unlucky if you slipped through the cracks like that, but it did happen. It even happened to me for a while).
But yeah, I have to say, looking back, that I was in no way prepared to enter adult life at 16. I barely was at 18. But at 16 I was still in the clueless and angry phase, so expecting me to make choices that'd set me on my whole life's path just then was ridiculous. Being asked at 16 what you fancy doing for the next 50 years/until you're old (and let's face it, to a 16 year old, 30 is old, 40 is ancient) is not fun, and it ignores the other meaning of the word 'career': it's a vocation, etc, sure...but it also means an uncontrolled headlong rush, and in my experience working life is as much that as the other...if not more!