C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man sums it up.
The entire public education systems is one big “Experiment House”
“Why schools are going away from classics is beyond me.”
The reason is simple. The classics were written by dead white men mostly and schools today think kids have to read books written by a diverse set of authors. So they select contemporary books written by women, blacks, Native Americans, Peruvians, Guatemalans, drug addicts and convicts, etc., etc. so all the kids’ “voices” will feel “represented” by the authors. Never mind that the books are poorly written, have little redeeming value, or may have been outright frauds. It’s the diversity that counts.
Right up there with Math problems: 2+2 and 3 joints + 2 joints.
Probably because sound thinking, and the basis for it, is a real threat to some people.
I read some pretty skanky books in high school. After I’d read them I wondered what all the rush was for me to read them.
Look, I’m not in the business of advocating the banning of books or setting limits on what movies portray to our kids. I’d just like to think that a few movie makers and book writers could produce products that would teach our kids some positive things, without dragging them through filth to do it.
Today only leftist propaganda qualifies as material that needs to be taught, and as for dragging kids through filth, every aspect of a wholesome value system will be destroyed if at all possible.
When one of the books he was having to read last year had bad language in it, I commented to his teacher. She has to pick material from the AP English website. She can't pick her own material (not that she would make different choices).
Because new classics have been written since then? Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is a very good book. I like Huck Finn as much as the next guy, but there's nothing wrong with bringing things up to speed a bit. We don't ride horses and buggies anymore, either. Beowolf? Totally worthless.
At least they are not reading Harry Potter novels. Those books are riddled with murder, kidnapping, torture, slavery, theft, child abuse, animal cruelty, voyeurism, interspecies lust, underage drinking and inter-racial dating.
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If you were reading Lord of the Flies in 10th grade, your school had some low expectations.
I read all of those books, but Lord of the Flies was required reading in 6th grade.
There is the problem. If you use public housing, expect to be living in a slum. And, if you use public schools, expect your children to be steeped in filth and leftist indoctrination.
Tom Wolfe is usually pretty even-handed in portraying the reality of all kinds of situations. I have not read the Electric Kool-Aid acid Test, but I would be interested to see if Wolfe actually glamorizes drug use as the aggrieved father states.
He should have announced that he was going to read a selection from his son's summer reading list. Bet he would have been stopped before he finished the page.
i recall reading The Odyssey, The Iliad, Canterbury Tales, Grapes of Wrath, Othello in high school... and MacBeth, Red Badge of Courage and Oliver Twist in jr. high...
check out the following link and listen to excerpts of Beowulf in Old English... you can follow along with the provided text... my boys got a kick out of this...
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/Beowulf.Readings/Grendel.html
This is in a district that I would consider more conservative than most. I’ve never even heard of “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” and I took a college course on young adult literature last year. There’s such wonderful literature out there. Including Beowulf, if I may say so. The problem should be having a hard time choosing which books to put on the list from so many excellent choices.
It’s because most of their teachers have never read the classics. You’d be shocked to see how publik skool teachers are educated.
For me (1970 or so) it was Catcher in the Rye and Summer of 42.
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