Disturbing Trend in Education

[ColtSeavers]

I have a teenage niece who frequently consults me with her literature homework.Seems she hates reading.I told her I loved to read in school and would frequently read all the stories ahead of time. I loved Twain , Poe ,London,Kipling,Bradbury and others.Then I opened her book to find my old friends were gone.In their stead was a mexican woman,an american indian,an apparently uneducated African American(the story was incomprehensible ebonics)an eskimo,a dominican,etc. etc. Perusing these "stories" I found no substance no great storytelling. There was no "To Build a Fire" , no "Most Dangerous Game". Instead I was beat over the head with political correctness.A bunch of woe is me I'm a poor minority mess. There was nothing redeemable in the whole book. Oprah would'nt have read that crap. I told my niece that I understand why literature is dying.They make kids hate reading by shoving indoctrinating crap down their throats.Why cant we read for pleasure anymore.Why cant we enjoy our travels through the stars our adventures under the sea.Why do we have to look around and say see I'm reading something by a minority that means I'm a good person.Dammit reading shouldnt be depressing.Enjoy Its so easy. Read Star Wars books. Read King.Read Koontz. Read Pulps. Read a damn Playboy magazine. But dont ever read some pretentious,self-important crap by some pompous ass because it makes you feel like a good world citizen.You want to help minorities go do a favor for one,give one a job,help an unmarried mother financially.Or how about this,look at one and just see a person like yourself not a color class or creed. Make a real difference, dont let Maya Angelou blow smoke up your ass with garbage that a ten year old with ADD could write. I know why a caged bird sings so it doesnt have to hear her chant that crap out loud like shes the Lord on high.

 

[Stewart]

I told my niece that I understand why literature is dying.They make kids hate reading by shoving indoctrinating crap down their throats.Why cant we read for pleasure anymore?

There would be little point in ensuring kids read the stuff they want to in an education system as there would be little to learn. Plus, outside of the syllabus, they are free to read whatever they wish. The whole idea of a set reading list in education is because the body that chooses the books feels they are of a suitable depth for the reading level and they can encourage children to become critical of what they read. You aren't going to sit a kid down with a Star Wars book and expect them to become good at interpreting subtexts when there are, more than likely, none. Stuff like that is fluff and will not instill critical abilities in a reader. The idea is not to make children like whatever authors are set, but to provide a text with enough depth to be able to interpret what, beyond the narrative, the author is actually saying. If they don't like what's set, then that's okay; but as long as they are gaining a skill from doing so.

But dont ever read some pretentious,self-important crap by some pompous ass because it makes you feel like a good world citizen.

Sadly, you are still bandying about the "pretentious" tag as nothing more than a buzzword without meaning. It says nothing about the book but everything about your attitude.

 

[SFG75]

I have a teenage niece who frequently consults me with her literature homework.Seems she hates reading.I told her I loved to read in school and would frequently read all the stories ahead of time. I loved Twain , Poe ,London,Kipling,Bradbury and others.

How old is your niece? If she is in junior high, then those works wouldn't be experienced until later on. Some of the works you mentioned aren't in the curriculum until junior or even senior year, if at all. I went to a Catholic school and we didn't have anything by Bradbury. There are a ton of good writers, so I don't hold that against them.

Then I opened her book to find my old friends were gone.In their stead was a mexican woman,an american indian,an apparently uneducated African American(the story was incomprehensible ebonics)an eskimo,a dominican,etc. etc.

May we have specific names? There are a ton of talented minority writers, it's tough to just accept a generalization and call it good. If you don't like "ebonics," then I trust you don't like the rather sophomoric-joking-around nature of Vonnegut?

bunch of woe is me I'm a poor minority mess. There was nothing redeemable in the whole book.

Yes, because minorities don't get the shaft in employment, educational opportunities, not to mention general inclusion in society. Any study that shows comparisons based on education and experience in the working world demonstrates a clear bias. Then again, it's tough to not be "wronged" when called on Euro-centric oppressive ideology.

I told my niece that I understand why literature is dying.They make kids hate reading by shoving indoctrinating crap down their throats.Why cant we read for pleasure anymore.Why cant we enjoy our travels through the stars our adventures under the sea.Why do we have to look around and say see I'm reading something by a minority that means I'm a good person.

Wow, way to really build up a desire to not read in your niece and to not be supportive of her education. The kids don't pick the curriculum because if they did, they wouldn't be exposed to works they wouldn't normally read, that's the point! Part of an education is to have new experiences and viewpoints, even ones(gasp!) that you don't like. Then again, the only valid one is a Euro-centric one right?

You want to help minorities go do a favor for one,give one a job,help an unmarried mother financially.

Wow, this is really an outrageous comment on your part, ignorant too.

Or how about this,look at one and just see a person like yourself not a color class or creed.

Individualism allows for systemic oppression. No person is an island. Civil rights, the abolition of slavery, and the rise of labor were due to collective efforts. One person can't change a corproate board filled with fat, white, old guys. Nor can the person change an academic hiring board, or a board of editors looking to publish a book. Yes, you can go elsewhere, but that's why sharecropping in America was such a rip off. You were free to sell yourself out to the lowest person who didn't offer rates any better than otehrs that turned you down. Yep, that was choice and the "free-market" for you. Individualism is overrated.

Make a real difference, dont let Maya Angelou blow smoke up your ass with garbage that a ten year old with ADD could write. I know why a caged bird sings so it doesnt have to hear her chant that crap out loud like shes the Lord on high.

Yep, her vast awards and works really are minor, not celebrated or acknowledged in any way.

 

[Fantasy Moon]

Children need baby steps in order to grow and be able to understand the concepts discussed in classics. I hate to break it to you, but children don't like literature because they actually have to do work and read for themselves. It's not handed to them through digital feed.

I would see more merit in assigning the works of the Marquis de Sade as opposed to those authors mentioned in the thread topic post. Then again irony and revenge stories are always fun.

 

[ColtSeavers]

You people make my point,You know that I am right, my points are indisputable yet you disagree because the truth scares you. Star Wars may be "fluff" but it is ten times more redeemable than the multi-cultural turds in that book.Oh and Stewart I used pretentious just for you because you brought that word up first in a previous thread as a preemptive strike against me calling you what you are.I believe pompous better describes you. I think its a scary thing when the government forces its point of view down our kids throats. Once again you all missed the point. The point was that reading is a dying art because we are killing it by taking any enjoyment out of it for our kids and making them hate to read. My father was the most well-read man I ever knew as a child he did not try to push the classics on me or sway my reading. He told me that as long as I read and enjoyed that I would learn and be better off. I was always way ahead of my class at reading and comprehension. I tested yearly in the top 1 percent in the country in all categories and was constantly pressured to skip grades. But my father thought that I should grow with the kids my age. My vocabulary was far advanced of my peers. What did I enjoy reading you ask? Who was my favorite author? Stan "The Man" Lee. The comic book the truly American invention and literature at its purist. As an adult I have went on to read everything, classics, mystery,suspense,sci-fi, fantasy,horror etc.Everything except romance.(not that there is anything wrong with that) I thank my father for not saying "Put those funny books down and read something good!" My father was not told to read anything as a kid, in fact some people thought he was trying to be uppity because he always had his nose in a book. Did people make fun of what my father was reading you ask? No, They would just say stuff like "I did'nt know niggers could read." My father overcame racism in a very racist society but he never told me to hate those who called us niggers, but to save our contempt for those who pitied us. Those who make themselves feel good by socially oppressing us and think they are helping. Stewart I know what you are better than you do. You are my peoples bane not our savior.

p.s. My father spoke three languages,none of which were ebonics,and he never once axed me a question.

 

[SevenWritez]

Shut up, you idiot.

 

[eyez0nme]

Come now, Sevenwriterz, learn to agree to disagree.

ColtSeavers, I will have to agree with you.

But then again, I'm in the minority. You don't like minorities, ColtSeavers? You believe minorities can't write?

 

[ColtSeavers]

You speak eloquently Seven, and nice points you make as well.

 

[ColtSeavers]

Come now, Sevenwriterz, learn to agree to disagree.

ColtSeavers, I will have to agree with you.

But then again, I'm in the minority. You don't like minorities, ColtSeavers? You believe minorities can't write?

As a minority myself I dont like to be patronized with needless multicultural propaganda.

 

[jcsoblonde]

LOL just ignore seven...he's done it to me to and I still think its funny. Just "shut up, you idiot" hahahahahaha...such style and class...

 

[Rien]

In my senior year of high school, I go to take two wonderful literature classes. One was World Literature, and the other was Literary Themes. A lot of seniors and super-seniors took Lit Themes because they needed a passing grade in English in order to earn that English credit they'd failed once or twice. I took it because of the structure of the class. All you had to do was read and take tests. That was it. You got a certain amount of points based on the amount of pages in the book, and the content of the book. The only catch was that you had to read from a pre-assigned list. The teacher had all those wonderful authors you mentioned, along with Grisham, Orwell, Stephen Crane, and a few others that I just can't think of. However, I got a lot more out of my World Lit class. I learned a lot about Africa, for one thing. I've never been able to get into a World History class, so there was a lot that I didn't know about. I knew nothing of apartheid, or even of Rwanda. I got to see the man that saved all those people in his hotel give a lecture about it on a trip to a nearby college. Literature isn't supposed to just be there to entertain; it's also there to educate. Hence that awful lacking of the obviously magnificent Star Wars. Movies entertain. Books should do more than that.

 

[ColtSeavers]

My point was that if we dont first allow our kids to read what they want. They will read nothing and thus learn nothing. Reading is a habit that needs to be nurtured early and refined later.

 

[mehastings]

You people make my point,You know that I am right, my points are indisputable yet you disagree because the truth scares you.

If you didn't want a dispute, why start this thread? Are you just trying to egg people into arguing with you by being rude and crass (your words, not mine)?

I totally disagree with your assertion that children hate reading because of what they are forced to read in school. I love to read, and I hated most of the things I read in middle and high school. I can't remember reading much written by minority writers, and it isn't surprising as there wasn't much of a push in that direction until late in my High School career. I do remember reading a number of the authors and stories that you mention and being bored by them. I would probably have been interested in reading stories by authors from different cultures. I find the term "multi-cultural turds" to be offensive. Those stories were probably chosen because they show children life from perspectives different from their own, not just to make them think they are "good people" because they are reading something by a minority.

I genuinely believe that there are a number of reasons that children don't like to read, and what they are forced to read in middle/high school isn't one of them. A child should learn to love reading long before they come to that point. To me, the blame lies on parents who allow their children to watch TV, play video games and browse the web rather than playing outside, reading and otherwise entertaining themselves. In addition, I've noticed that parents who read with their children (either outloud or side by side) tend to have children that love to read.

Most of all, you should be encouraging your niece rather than complaining along with her. Encourage her to do her assigned reading, but to suppliment it with topics she enjoys. Most of all, refine your attitude. You come across as being negative and close minded, which I suspect isn't your intent.

 

[SevenWritez]

Jcsoblonde: When have I ever commented towards you?

To Colt: Rien said simply what I had originally in my prior post (much more eloquently, of course), however, your ranting demeanor made me realize I didn't care to explain myself, as I felt Stewart and SFG had already ended the debate nicely, but then your second post made me decide to stride on in with "Shut up, you idiot." I felt it was appropriate.

I'm 16 and I hate most of the junk I read Freshman and Sophmore year, be it To Kill a Mockingbird, Sherlock Holmes, Death Be Not Proud, Brave New World, or other books I can't remember. Were there ones I enjoyed? Yes; The Power of One, Rebecca (shoot me), and Things Fall Apart, to name a few. As Rien has already said, literature is not meant only as a means of entertainment, but also as a way to pass on knowledge.

Instead of the always formal style of textbooks, information can too be passed on through stories, and while some of it may be "pompous pretentious blah-deh-blah-blah" most of it is not. Enjoyable? Hardly--with the flow of time, things change, and so too do peoples tastes. But the works that must be read are there to--**** it, read Stewarts post, he's already beaten holes through your logic.

As for your comment on why kids, like myself, are forced to read things they do not. Well, blame the parents. In elementary school no one threw classics at me, and I had the time to go out and get the good shit. That's right, you know what I'm talking about. GOOSEBUMPS! ANIMORPHS! BOOKS WITH DINOSAUR PICTURES!

Yeah, I get bogged down during the school year with crap I hate to read, piled on top of this work I don't want to do. But it's life, it's education, it's a hassle but it serves you--if only a little bit--in the long run. So before you go on to rant about pompous writers trying to place themselves in some holy light, make sure you wipe that false sense of idealism off your pretentious face.

K, thanks.

And holy Jesus I make lots of typos.

SECOND EDIT: Yeah, what Mehastings said! Etc.

 

[eyez0nme]

As a minority myself I dont like to be patronized with needless multicultural propaganda.

Who the f**k do you think you are?

An asian, black, or hispanic?

 

[mehastings]

Interesting article about some of the reasons kids don't read.

 

[ColtSeavers]

I dont like to think of myself as anything but a person, but I am a black man.

 

[SFG75]

I don't know why, but more and more, this forum is becoming like the bar scene in Star Wars.

 

[ColtSeavers]

My friend her does'nt like you.
I dont like you either.

 

[SFG75]

My friend her does'nt like you.
I dont like you either.

It's your friend here, not "her." Perhaps if you knew the difference, you wouldn't be ranting about supposedly ignorant writing that you think is so deplorable for your niece. Perhaps you could look in the mirror and start the improvement there. Lord knows you need it.