I have never been interested in literature. I'd rather write something worth reading myself than read what people read hundreds of years ago. I think teaching in the modern era should be updated with modern subjects. At the same time, sadly, it seems like efforts to take that advice wind up in analysis of rap songs and the like, which I'm not sure is an improvement.
What's great about Free Republic in this regard is that it gives people an outlet for their interest in persuasive writing on subjects that its users are passionately interested in.
I think that's the best way to learn. It might be something worth sharing with older children as they try to grapple with related skills.
The question is how to passionately interest a child in something nowadays. Our culture seems to oppose passion about anything and I find the curious lack of ethusiasm in today's kids - even the good ones - unnerving and depressing.
Have you faced that problem and how do you personally deal with it?
D
No, I haven't. My children have all, so far, been subject to a variety of enthusiasms, whether it's wanting to learn about a subject, or wanting to learn a skill, or holding an opinion very strongly.
I think they must have just picked up some of this from my husband and me, because both of us are that way, although about different things. "Why are you yelling at Daddy about the Civil War?" "Because he's a danged Yankee, that's why!"
Our culture seems to oppose passion about anything and I find the curious lack of ethusiasm in today's kids - even the good ones - unnerving and depressing.
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I have noticed that too, where is the exuberance that was so obvious forty years ago?