Posted on 03/07/2014 8:10:06 AM PST by Borges
Love it or loathe it, Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has served as a rite of passage for high school students for generations.
In addition to the Bard, teachers have long relied on Socrates, Kafka, Steinbeck and a host of other authors whose works earned the distinction of being a classic — albeit rarely landed on teens' top 10 lists.
While few dare challenge the texts as exceptional literature, high school teachers throughout the Chicago area and beyond are swapping out the canon for the contemporary, arguing that their selections impart the same themes and skills, with one important caveat:
Students don't audibly groan when they whip out their books at the start of English class.
For the first time in decades, teachers in northwest suburban Township High School District 214 aren't teaching "Romeo and Juliet" this year to the majority of freshmen. "Hamlet" didn't make the cut in some classes in Glenbrook High Schools District 225. And some teachers at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire replaced Kafka with "Life of Pi," a novel written in (gasp) 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
I disliked Shakespeare in general but I really loathed Chaucer. I prefer the likes of Melville, Milton, and Hawthorne.
Shakespeare and Chaucer too bawdy for you?
My own pet peeve...plays were meant to be acted out, not read. A few skilled actors can turn “boring” Shakespeare into “great” Shakespeare.
My son was reciting Shakespeare the other day for a class presentation.
I told him to use it to woo the babes. I think that it was the first time he had heard the term woo. But he got my point.
My wife looked at me as if I had worms crawling out of my ears. She still thinks of my son as a little baby.
I found Chaucer a hard read and boring.
Loved Cooleridge.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
PART I
It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
‘By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide,
And I am next of kin;
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.’
He holds him with his skinny hand,
‘There was a ship,’ quoth he.
‘Hold off! unhand me, grey-beard loon!’
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.
He holds him with his glittering eye—
The Wedding-Guest stood still,
And listens like a three years’ child:
The Mariner hath his will.
....
PART II
The Sun now rose upon the right:
Out of the sea came he,
Still hid in mist, and on the left
Went down into the sea.
And the good south wind still blew behind,
But no sweet bird did follow,
Nor any day for food or play
Came to the mariner’s hollo!
And I had done a hellish thing,
And it would work ‘em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.
Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,
That made the breeze to blow!
....
Complete poem....
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173253
Great Art ended when the Renaissance ended. Everything else since then is mostly crap.
The reason kids groan is due to poor teachers, who do not know how to make literature exciting and interesting - Chaucer being a case in point.
Teach them how to draw the human form correctly, teach them how to write in Old and Middle English. Bring back Latin and Greek so they can read the originals by Aristotle and Julius Caesar. Hell, just teach them English, spelling, cursive writing, and grammar (as well as a good grounding in history, basic science, and basic math - without a calculator!).
Good teachers can make even the most putatively dull or boring subject matter interesting and exciting, making the kids want to learn.
Knowledge is power, ignorance merely makes a good socialist voter.
i think all kids should be required to read harry potter and when they’re in junior high, 50 shades of gray...doesn’t everyone? /sarcasm
what they should be reading is ayn rand
and let’s not forget walter the farting dog
My English teacher tried to introduce me (and the rest of class of course) to Cooleridge, didn’t stick. Then I discovered Iron Maiden and they taught me to appreciate Cooleridge. Which is probably when I started forming my opinion that the way we teach literature in high school actually teaches primarily teaches kids to hate literature.
Both. But make it clear that some are classics in the truest sense, while the others have potential but have not lived long enough to have established their bona fides.
There’s something to be said for the “Schoolhouse Rock” approach.
I once had a Newfie named Peeve. He was my pet, ... .
Nearly all of my own appreciation of great pieces of literature came from "circling back", that is, considering the work after I'd built up a context and understood the language and the issues being addressed from my own life experience. Shakespeare was like that - "how sharper than a serpent's tooth / to have a thankless child" meant nothing to me at 12. Like a joke, it loses its punch if you have to have the references explained.
About the best thing you can do for an individual student is treat him or her as an individual, each at a different stage of understanding. That doesn't translate well to assembly-line classrooms. It does translate well to a tutor/pupil relationship, which is why the Brits enjoyed such success with that model. It isn't very economical, to be sure, but it's cheaper than failure.
I’ve read bits of Chaucer and Milton, a couple, maybe three of Melville, but I just couldn’t stay concentrated with Hawthorne.
Give me Shakespeare.
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I had my son memorize Lord Byron’s She walks in Beauty . It was for Mother’s Day but I told him women would positively melt at hearing those verses!
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