Throughout high school, Tom was assigned books to read. Often he would have preferred to read an assigned book within a few days; however the teachers parceled out pages and then quizzed on those pages. Completing the book ahead of schedule would have meant poor performance on the frequent quizzes, which often asked questions like what was a character wearing or eating (as if that had much relevance to the overall story).
Most of the assigned reading was melancholy. The themes usually centered on death and misery instead of life and joy. Tom recalls reading the following books in high school:
Tom needed other books to read in order to keep him reading. The school books alone would have destroyed all desire to read in the teenager. So, Tom sought out adventure stories including books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, et al), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World, Sherlock Holmes), Jack London (White Fang, Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf), and other early Twentieth Century novelists. These books also dealt with themes like death, but in a way that was positive, life reaffirming, and adventurous. Like many other teenagers, he also enjoyed comic books. These books gave Tom a desire to discover, learn, travel, and be something, whereas the assigned school books caused him to wonder what the purpose of life was and whether life is worth living when there can be so much tragedy and horror.
As an adult, Thomas still does not know why the school district assigned the reading it did when thousands of other books with more engaging themes could have been on the reading list. He figures that the books would not survive as literature if not foisted upon young minds whose world views would thereafter be affected. He wonders if the reason so few adults read books after graduation has anything to do with the reading that had been required.
Teen-aged years were traumatic enough. After all, teenagers deal with wanting to be free while restricted by parents, school, and other authority. Teenagers deal with new emotions that are stronger than at any other time in life. Why then should the school force such sad literature upon teenagers already dealing with turbulent, troubling times?
Most of the assigned reading was melancholy. The themes usually centered on death and misery instead of life and joy. Tom recalls reading the following books in high school:
- Ethan Frome (about attempted collaborative suicide);
- A Separate Peace (about high school friends and one becoming jealous to the point of trying to kill his friend);
- The Great Gatsby (about a rich man who pines for a shallow woman which ends up causing him to be murdered);
- Jane Eyre (about an unattractive British woman who is to marry her older boss until she learns he is already married to a nut);
- The Wide Sargasso Sea (about the life of the nut in Jane Eyre before she marries the rich British dude);
- To Kill a Mockingbird (about racism which kills an innocent black man);
- The Red Badge of Courage (about death and dying during the Civil War)
- The Good Earth (about a newer Chinese generation taking over and placing the preceding generation in a corner with opium).
Tom needed other books to read in order to keep him reading. The school books alone would have destroyed all desire to read in the teenager. So, Tom sought out adventure stories including books by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, et al), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World, Sherlock Holmes), Jack London (White Fang, Call of the Wild, Sea Wolf), and other early Twentieth Century novelists. These books also dealt with themes like death, but in a way that was positive, life reaffirming, and adventurous. Like many other teenagers, he also enjoyed comic books. These books gave Tom a desire to discover, learn, travel, and be something, whereas the assigned school books caused him to wonder what the purpose of life was and whether life is worth living when there can be so much tragedy and horror.
As an adult, Thomas still does not know why the school district assigned the reading it did when thousands of other books with more engaging themes could have been on the reading list. He figures that the books would not survive as literature if not foisted upon young minds whose world views would thereafter be affected. He wonders if the reason so few adults read books after graduation has anything to do with the reading that had been required.
Teen-aged years were traumatic enough. After all, teenagers deal with wanting to be free while restricted by parents, school, and other authority. Teenagers deal with new emotions that are stronger than at any other time in life. Why then should the school force such sad literature upon teenagers already dealing with turbulent, troubling times?
As an English teacher, I can understand why these works can be a bummer for students.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time interpretive works open up a world of interpretation that more mainstream works do not. I've taught pop fiction, and the response from most students has been "What's the point?" When I've taught interpretive works, several of which are the ones you mentioned above, my students were able to delve deeper into the works. This type of literary analysis parallels the analysis that students have to do in other classes. At the end, they might not have enjoyed the works, but that may not have been the point. It's the thinking that goes into the work, and it's a type of thinking that doesn't come out of less interpretive works.
The problem for you may have been that the work wasn't well taught by the instructor. Frequently, high school teachers don't challenge their students capacity to think. They teach the work just to teach the work, but they don't get the students to move on beyond rote memorization of facts and surface analysis.
The key to making these works come alive is getting into them, into the marrow of the work. That requires background into both the author's life and the time period the work was written in. For example, if one is teaching a work like The Great Gatsby, one has to relate the work to Modernism and the trends of that movement. By doing so, the student recognizes the viewpoint of the reader of that period as well as be given a comparative basis to previous literary periods and one's own. When I was in high school, I did not get that level of analysis. That added to my frustration when I was a teacher. So when I taught the works, I made sure that appropriate context to the works. To sum up, the problem may not have been the works themselves, but how it was taught.
Yes. You are right. The teachers were not that good. The point of high school is to learn to learn, but you'll note by some of my other blogs that very few teachers knew how to teach learning and opted for the easy testing of names and facts from the stories instead of what made the stories famous classics.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of poor teaching is in the blog about math: http://growingupinvegasduringthe80sand90s.blogspot.com/2010/01/learning-math-in-public-schools-of-las.html