A catch all thread for problems within education - k-12 and higher ed.
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Thereâs the obvious problem, that theyâre censoring Shakespeare, but in reading the article I learned that high schoolers in Florida used to have to read 2 books a year in English class, one each semester, but now they only have to read one book per year, and then a handful of selections from other books and plays. Thatâs less than I read each week in high school English.
Hereâs the part that really shows how bad it is there:
There are ways that students can read these works in their entirety, district officials said. If a student can obtain a copy of one of the books or plays, perhaps with the help of their parents, they can do so.
IF. If a studentâs parents help them â because they wonât be able to borrow Shakespeareâs plays from the library, so someone will have to buy them, or borrow the books as adults â then and only then can they read great literature.
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They can always get it from their friendly local contraband dealers. Or when they ask somebody on the street âHey Mr., weâll give you some money if you buy us a 6-pack of beer and a copy of Hamlet.â
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Came here to post this. Not disappointed.
That image has lived on my hard drive for years.
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The private school I attended had the kids read four books over the Summer for English, at least during jr high and high school. One would begin the yearâs study, another would be our next book to study in class, and we hadta write reports on the other two.
Kids who went to public schools were reading our jr high assignments in high school, unless they were part of the AP program. Homerâs Odyssey ferinstance.
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We didnât have to read at quite that rate in high school, but I did read a Tale of Two Cities in one weekend because I had put off reading it and the test was on a Monday. But I canât believe theyâre only assigned to read one or two books a year. Thatâs not good.
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As a teen, I wouldâve said assigned reading sucks. Thatâs a surefire way to make a kid hate a book, by forcing them to read it.
But I also had already read A Tale of Two Cities, because it was on our bookshelf and I was bored one day. I read a lot. But most of the things I read would not have appeased an English teacher.
I couldâve talked at length about how William Gibsonâs cyberpunk novels depicted class struggle, or how Stephen Kingâs novels (at least the later ones) embedded so much of the pop culture zeitgeist that they felt real and live, or how Isaac Asimovâs Foundation books addressed really long-term planning in a way that nothing else did. How S.E. Hintonâs books really resonated with teens when we were at that turning point in our lives and didnât yet know how to make a future that we wanted. How Mark Twainâs books were such a satire of human nature and culture.
But the English teachers, they didnât care about any of that sorta stuff. Instead, they assigned us the most boring books they could find, most of which didnât really seem to say much except âpeople are stupidâ.
I remember when my stepdaughter discovered that she actually liked reading. I think it was the Twilight books for her, which may not be very good, but they were what got her to realize that reading didnât have to be as unpleasant as it always was in English class, it could actually be fun, and only after that she started reading a lot. Since then sheâs grown up, gotten married and had a kid. And she has read to her son and taught him to read from the very beginning, such that heâs way above his grade level. But not because of anything that an English teacher assigned her.
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As someone who was reading by 3, I was flummoxed by my oldest â who had been read to every day of her life, even as a baby â who just wasnât getting it, even halfway through 2nd grade. One day she expressed interest in a kids-level graphic novel. Oddly, for someone so visual, I canât read those types of books so we didnât have any at home. We borrowed a few and bought a few. Suddenly, she loved reading! Now she reads regular text-based books all the time. Whatever it was, she needed to see it expressed in both test and drawing first before it clicked in her brain.
I guess what Iâm saying is: your post about how thereâs supposedly âone right wayâ to learn about books and English language/literature and that is actually whatâs holding a lot of kids back brought back a memory for me!
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I had a friend who just refused to learn how to read, because adults were making her. Like, she had no interest in doing what people told her to do⌠she eventually did, but she was a late reader because of her stubborn rebellious streak! 
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I had a cousin who thought he was so clever for not really learning to read until high school.
I also began reading at three, and started reading the editorials in the newspaper when I was in pre-school. Mom told me one of her most treasured memories of me was when I was in Kindergarten. I came to the breakfast table and said, âWell, nixonâs got another two year plan. Dâyou suppose itâll work as well as the last one?!â
The private school made us read so much so often, and too often things I did not enjoy, I quit reading for pleasure. I resented TF outta that, and didnât start reading for myself again until I flunked outta the private joint and went to the public high school.
I wound up reading Homerâs Odyssey seven times. The first time was in 8th grade, at the private school. The entire 8th grade class there was focussed on Classical studies - everyone took Latin, we read the Iliad and Odyssey, and Shakespeareâs Julius Caesar in English class, and our history classes were about Greece and Rome.
Three of my classes at the public school assigned us the Odyessey, and, yes I aced that shit! I still ended up reading it three more times for pleasure!
A fourth class at the public school assigned the Odyessey for the beginning of the year, but I dropped it when the damn teacher began reading it to us while we had the book open in front of us. That insulted my intelligence, and I never went back. Why they had a moron like her teaching World Lit was beyond understanding.
Iâm still a voracious reader. Ancient Egyptian history, myth, and the wondrous novels of Pauline Gedge; equestrian history, horse breeds, equitation (primarily hunter seat but some dressage); and stuff about the English language all fascinate me.
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I apparently learned to read around age 4. I say apparently because no one is really sure and I donât remember. My parents just noticed when I was 4 that I was actually able to pick up something they knew I hadnât seen before and read it to them.
Yeah, law school has done that to me, unfortunately. The amount of case law we have to read every week is just insane, and thatâs not exactly light reading, so the last thing I want to do now when I have free time is read anything. Iâm hoping that will change once Iâm out of school.
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Being unable to read for pleasure is such shit.
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I was reading at two-- Mom used to tell a story about Dad and me coming home an hour late from the grocery store one day. The people there didnât believe I could read, so theyâd hand me things, and I read the labels. I donât remember it, of course, but she loved telling the story. 
And as a kid, Iâd read anything that wasnât nailed down (and Iâd probably try to pry it up.) I read the full series of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings at nine or ten.
Even so, a lot of the assigned readings from school werenât all that interesting to me, so I could understand why some of my classmates were less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. Classics can be good in their own way, but it wouldnât hurt to shake up the curriculum a little, especially when it sparks studentsâ interests. Readingâs a vital skill, especially now so much happens on the Internet.
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I was reading around that age as well. My parents have told me the first time I read was when I pointed to âFrench friesâ on a menu and stated â I want French friesâ. Iâve loved reading as long as I can remember. When I was in grade school there was the 600 minute club. You would get a free ticket to Six Flags if you read that much. I happily read that much and more.
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