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 found Chaucer a hard read and boring.
It helps to read it out loud. Then you can really hear the beauty of the words and the sound, rather than the variable spelling, is what gets your attention, so that you can follow the story.
see post #42
I wore out 1 cassette of Live After Death and 2 Power Slaves before finally getting them on CD.
No. Lol. Those books probably wouldn’t be allowed in high school. At least the Game of Thrones wouldn’t be.
For Christmas, we gave my son the Stephen King classics: The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Needful Things (my wife is a fan). He has been watching the Game of Thrones series on DVD and decided that he liked it so much that he bought the book. His friend recommended it.
The Shakespeare recitation was for school.
Funny story: my wife had never read “To Kill A Mockingbird” and she decided to read it after my son was done with it. She said it is one of the BEST books she had ever read. Lol.
Lol. Cool song!
Up the Irons!
My son is a freshman in high school IB program and he is currently reading The Odyssey and they are reading Romeo & Juliet next.
Guess there’s really no point in studying the history and evolution of English in an English class.
If they want “the same themes”, why don’t they just read comic books.
I just don’t see how instilling a loathing of reading in young people and then lamenting the low information voter makes any sense at all.
I know a guy who had a teacher like that. He is proud of not having read a book since he graduated. And he votes like every other low info voter. I had a great teacher who encouraged reading even though she didn’t care for my choice of Sweet Valley High. Currently reading a biography of Reagan, just finished The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, which was fascinating.
Just different styles I guess, but I know which one I think was better.
He never tells me that he’s sick of this house
He never says why don’t you get off that couch?
He don’t cost me nothin when he wants to go out
I want you to love me like my dog
He never says I need a new attitude
Him and my sister ain’t always in a feud
When I leave the seat up he don’t think that it’s rude
I want you to love me like my dog does Baby
When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog
He never acts like he don’t care for my friends
He never asks me where in the hell have you been?
He don’t play dead when I wanna pet him
I want you to love me like my dog does honey
He never says ‘I wish you made more money’
He always thinks that pull my finger is funny
I want you to love me like my dog
He don’t get mad at me and throw a major fit
When I say his sister is a b**ch!
I want you to love me like my dog does baby
When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog...
-— Billy Currington
Lol.
Nothing like a good ol’ pooch. :)
It won’t woo the girls, but it has its own wisdom about “True Love”!
;>)
My 8th grader is reading Romeo & Juliet. 5th grader reading Where the Red Fern Grows.
It is a good show if you are interested. People love their animals and their animals love them back.
People show their vulnerable side to their pets because pets are not judgmental. There is a story about a rich widow who spoils her dog. Or a story about an old man whose black lab has cancer....
You should watch it.
How about Winston Churchill? Very readable.
Thanks. I’ll check it out.
yes, a very good read
Place marker
Mostly classics, and here’s why, “classical, Christian education teaches children to think clearly and to love beauty and the past. Countless books by Christian educators are flooding publishers and websites because classical, Christian education nurtures children into life-long learners.”
I say mostly, because there are some moderns that are very influential and also need to be read, such as G.K. Chesterton, or C.S. Lewis, or William Bradford, or, John Bunyan.
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