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School Children

W

Wabbit

New Member
If you were able to expose school children ( let us say between the ages of 11 - 15 ) to just one book, then what book would it be?

It's a really difficult question. Right now I am thinking it would be 1984 because it's such an important message. Freemdom is so important and so easy lost.
 
Just getting my peers to read at all would be a good thing. Earlier this week I was actually being derided because I backed up my arguments with quotations from Thomas More and J.S. Mill... Go figure.
 
A very good question, Wabbit!

From what I can think of at the moment, I would probably also go for 1984. The only way today's kids have heard of Big Brother is from the C4 show. :rolleyes: I might also go for Lord of the Flies, to try and make them think about how people can behave towards others. Either way, it certainly wouldn't be most of the crap we read at school. :mad:
 
I would choose a book that I thought would get them interested in reading. I think the majority of 11-15 y/o students would not be thrilled or truly understand 1984 or Lord of the Flies. I think these are books best left to be read later on, when one is ready. I think that many students would never want to read again if subjected to these books, and I think the load of crap we read in school lead many people not to read at all. Get people reading then introduce them to books like 1984 & Lord of the Flies.
 
I don't know :) I think you are underestimating them. Maybe not at 11 but I think a 15 year old is more than able to understand Lord of FLies or 1984. I think a lot of adults forget how they were when they were that age. I mean, you can vote when you are 16 years old ( at least here ) if you are old enough to vote you are old enough to understand 1984 so I can't agree with you on that :)

But yes, it would also be a nice idea to expose them to something that would fill them with a love of reading!
 
Have to interject here—I think this idea of “exposing” kids to books in order to teach them about harsh realities is ruining the pleasure of reading for lots of kids and adversely affecting their attitudes toward learning and school. I know this is the case, actually.

My son is 14 and has been an avid reader since he was 3 or 4. This year he’s read John Le Carre, The Silmarrilion, The Codebreakers (nonfiction about cryptography), Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum, Catch-22, and a whole lot more. In the past, he’s loved everything from Ender’s Game to The Hardy Boys to Charlie Brown to the memoirs of Richard Feynmann.

I asked him what they were reading in school. “We have a choice. A book about a family of slaves or a book about an orphan who moves around in different families and never gets adopted.”

Oh boy, what a choice. What else have you read for class?

“A book about a boy with hydroencephalitis (water on the brain) who dies at the end. Then book about a boy whose dog dies and then the kid runs away, set in the Civil War, and he goes to the front and sees all these men getting wounded and starving. A book about a family who escape the Holocaust by going to Holland. etc.” You see a trend here?

No wonder some kids hate reading and feel depressed. No wonder there’s a profound sense of hopelessness in a lot of adolescents.

What’s wrong with just reading for pleasure, enjoyment, fun, and technical knowledge as we all do? Why are people compelled to traumatize kids in the name of emotional development and “exposing” them to something they will definitely learn about later?

Go to any school book fair for kids 11+ years old and you’ll see an array of loss, emotional disturbance, abandonment, despair. And the Goosebumps shelf, which always sells out. Those are the silly scary stories about normal people who get have a little scary adventure.

If you give them something they’ll enjoy, they’ll enjoy reading it. The point is not whether they'll understand it or not, it's What's the Point? Does every recommended book have to be about war, death, hardship, cruelty? Does the reading experience HAVE to be a pedantic morality lesson every time? What IS the point?
 
I do agree with you and understand where you are coming from and if I was deciding on what books for children to read I would choose maybe 80 percent of fun books for them to read and a few important life learning books. I agree with you that in real life situation schools present children with a huge list of dry books and they kill the love for reading. It should really be a mix though! And the mix should include more fun books than the dry books.

But that was not my question was it? :) My question is based on the hypothetical situation where they would only read one book. Sorry if I was not making myself clear on that point :)

My question was, if you had to choose just ONE book, what book would you choose? As a parent I sure you will agree that it's important for kids to have a lot of fun but we also have to teach them morals, ethics and give them information that will shape them to be a good human being and help them and others in life. OK, so fun books are good, I will agree with you on that but also there must be the other books too that teach them important things.

As I said, in reality a mix of 80 percent fun and the rest "life teaching" books would be what I would personally choose but in this hypothetical situation then I will choose 1984 because it IS a good book and I think they would enjoy it because its very dramatic and it's also a very important book that will teach them a great deal about the importance of being an individual, how important freedom is, how its important to fight for your rights and your own individuality and danger of dogma.
 
Reading for kids

OK, there's a huge difference in my mind between 10 and 11 year olds and 15 year olds. While some kids are ready for more "mature" stuff at 10 and 11, some really aren't.

With that in mind, I think I'd choose Harry Potter for the 11 year old crowd. (Millions of kids have been turned on to reading by these books, so Rowling must be doing *something* right.)

For the teenager I would go with "A Separate Peace." It goes into complicated relationships among teenagers, and deals with envy, but didn't strike me as being as "club you over the head" as a lot of other serious books. But I do agree with the person who posted about how reading should be FUN, so.... hmmnnnn. Maybe I'm wrong.



Cie
 
Well, 1984 is good, but along the same vein, I'd pick Farenheit 451 (no, not the 9/11 variety... :rolleyes: ). Because then, the person would realize just how important books are to establishing a strong society, and perhaps they'd WRITE one. :)
 
This kind of hypothetical limitation serves little purpose. However, I believe that your question is seeking to find a list of books that are enlightening and life-changing for teenagers.

My point in the previous post is that the books that are chosen to instruct and enlighten kids usually do not have the desired effect. They certainly didn’t on me. Did I learn about Freedom from 1984? Well, in the sense that intellectually I did see the point. Did it make me feel the fragility of freedom or understand the balance between freedom and civility? Definitely not.

On the other hand, there are loads of books I found on my own around age 15 that were enlightening and life-changing, ones that my teachers probably wouldn’t have recommended at all. On the Road made me want that same freedom. Adrienne Rich made me want to write poetry. Joan Didion wrote my disillusions, Virginia Woolf showed me how to write outside normal, Perelman cracked me up, Anne Sexton made me cry, John Cheever showed profound emptiness in a full world, Tom Wolfe showed something true about American craziness, Roland Barthes showed how to shape the thought world in words, . . .

But my father taught me how to live, and my mother showed me her mistakes.

Do you think there is a book that can do that? Say you choose the best book you can find. Do you think that all the other books that a kid chooses to read serve any less purpose than the one you might choose? You never know how or where the big pieces of perception will fall into place.

....and don't give me that, "it's just a silly question cause I'm a Silly Wabbit" crap.
 
novella said:
This kind of hypothetical limitation serves little purpose. However, I believe that your question is seeking to find a list of books that are enlightening and life-changing for teenagers.
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Why does it? because you think so? Because you say so? I don't agree with you. If you think the question is pointless then please don't answer the question.

Certainly the others that replied don't think it's a pointless question. If you have nothing to add other than tell me it's a stupid question than add nothing.

Do you think there is a book that can do that? Say you choose the best book you can find. Do you think that all the other books that a kid chooses to read serve any less purpose than the one you might choose? You never know how or where the big pieces of perception will fall into place.

....and don't give me that, "it's just a silly question cause I'm a Silly Wabbit" crap.
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Firstly, Don't tell me what I can and cannot say.
Secondly, it's not a stupid question. If you don't like it then stay the hell away and say nothing and say nothing.
Thirdly, to answer your question yes I do think a book can do that. I have read many a book that have made a huge impact on what I think or feel.
 
SillyWabbit said:
Why does it? because you think so? Because you say so? I don't agree with you. If you think the question is pointless then please don't answer the question.

Certainly the others that replied don't think it's a pointless question. If you have nothing to add other than tell me it's a stupid question than add nothing.



Firstly, Don't tell me what I can and cannot say.
Secondly, it's not a stupid question. If you don't like it then stay the hell away and say nothing and say nothing.
Thirdly, to answer your question yes I do think a book can do that. I have read many a book that have made a huge impact on what I think or feel.
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Prawn balls.

I think my post contributes quite a lot to this discussion. Why is it off limits to discuss whether the question serves a purpose? Why are your knickers in such a twist?
 
Because you are rude.

It's ok to disagree with me but you stated the question was pointless and opinionated that it was "silly" which is just a polite way to say stupid. As I said, if you think it's a stupid question then please keep it to yourself.

You also said you said "don't give me because i'm a silly wabbit crap" You presume to tell me what I can and cannot say or you expect me answer to be a silly one?

If you want to discuss it then fine let's discuss the question but please refrain from telling me what I can and cannot say or telling the the question is "silly" :)
 
I would say Watership Down. It had a lesson in it, but at the same time, it wasn't about "a boy who..." Now, in a perfect world where I was the Lit teacher, I would have my students choose their own books, with my approval. At first, I would have loose guidelines, too. Like, no Captain Underpants, but yes to Harry Potter, and as the year progresses, my standards get tighter. :D
Getting kids to read is as important as what they read, but you'll never get them to read anything substantial if they hate reading. Just one book is a hard choice, you never know when a life lesson will sink in, but with just one, it would have to be one with some punch.
 
I like the question. :cool:

I'm about to turn 16. I read Fahrenheit 451 in 8th grade, and I'd say 70% of the class thought it was dumb, 10% didn't bother to read it, 10% read it but didn't really understand what it was about/trying to say, and 10% actually enjoyed it, myself being in this last group. I'm now a big Bradbury fan. :D

I read '1984' on my own, after a friend reccomended it to me, also when I was in the 8th grade. I liked it at the time, but I re-read it a few months ago and think that I missed a lot of it the first time I had read it. I since have made all of my friends read it, and I might have to agree that this is the book that everyone should have the chance to read, but not at age 10-12.. more like 13-15.

I have been blessed this year with a fabulous english teacher who doesn't always stick to the curriculum .. I have never learned so much from any other class. We read an excerpt from 'A Clockwork Orange', discussed 'The Dubliners', read T.S. Eliot's 'Burnt Norton', Pablo Neruda, Jorge Borges, read an exerpt from 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenince', 'The Vulgar Soul', 'Godot', 'Slaughterhouse 5', etc. Monday he is throwing 'The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man' at us, because he's teaching it to his A.P. students and found a part that could tie in to what we're doing now, but I think he just wants to see us stuggle over the Joyce. :p

A book about a boy with hydroencephalitis (water on the brain) who dies at the end. Then book about a boy whose dog dies and then the kid runs away, set in the Civil War, and he goes to the front and sees all these men getting wounded and starving. A book about a family who escape the Holocaust by going to Holland. etc.”
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On a scary note, I think I actually have extremely similar, if not the same, books in school. :eek: Creepy!

And on a side note, I loved Goosebumps!! :D I was reading them in first grade.. my first diorama book report was done on a Goosebumps book. :p I still have it.
 
Glad you liked the question :cool:

It sounds like you have a wonderful english teacher! I think if only 10 percent read those books and they apprectiate, understand, and enjoy it then that's really good. I think it's worth to give it a shot in the hope of reaching them to expose them to some beauty or to teach them something important. If 10 percent "get it" then that is far better than none at all.
 
I hadn't thought of it, but Motorcycle Maintenance might be a good choice. But then, so would any of the Harry Potters, in my opinion. And, for the record, i think it's an interesting question.
However, ahving said that, i should also add that I think trying to teach anyone anything specific by having them read a work of fiction can be very . . . shall I say, imprecise. Prob'ly everyone here has had the experince of taping (or these days burning) songs for their boyfriend or girlfriend or spouse or whatever with the idea of communicating their feelings and having the lyrics not quite add up in the same way for the other person.
I think that teaching a child of that age to want to read, to enjoy reading, will eventually lead them to a lot of lessons that really can't be anticipated.
I might also vote for Huck Finn, not for the portrait of the American South, but for how it deals with precoceptions of "how things ought to turn out."
 
SillyWabbit said:
Why does it? because you think so? Because you say so? I don't agree with you. If you think the question is pointless then please don't answer the question.

Hmmm… Silly Wabbits are not always as silly as they sometimes sound. Especially when they get a bit riled up.

I think the question is a worthwhile one. To add my two cents worth, "Three Men In A Boat" -- Jerome K Jerome. I read it when I was about ten or eleven, on recommendation from parents who both liked it. So did I. Hardly life changing, but a real fun read; and I agree with others that kids should be reading for fun at that age.

Book is obviously dated, but timeless. And on a similar note I think all adults should read "The Wind In The Willows."
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