Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

High school reading: Classics or contemporary?
Chicago Tribune ^ | 3/7/2014 | Duaa Eldeib

Posted on 03/07/2014 8:10:06 AM PST by Borges

Love it or loathe it, Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has served as a rite of passage for high school students for generations.

In addition to the Bard, teachers have long relied on Socrates, Kafka, Steinbeck and a host of other authors whose works earned the distinction of being a classic — albeit rarely landed on teens' top 10 lists.

While few dare challenge the texts as exceptional literature, high school teachers throughout the Chicago area and beyond are swapping out the canon for the contemporary, arguing that their selections impart the same themes and skills, with one important caveat:

Students don't audibly groan when they whip out their books at the start of English class.

For the first time in decades, teachers in northwest suburban Township High School District 214 aren't teaching "Romeo and Juliet" this year to the majority of freshmen. "Hamlet" didn't make the cut in some classes in Glenbrook High Schools District 225. And some teachers at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire replaced Kafka with "Life of Pi," a novel written in (gasp) 2001.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: Resolute Conservative

<I found Chaucer a hard read and boring.

It helps to read it out loud. Then you can really hear the beauty of the words and the sound, rather than the variable spelling, is what gets your attention, so that you can follow the story.


41 posted on 03/07/2014 10:50:00 AM PST by radiohead
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345

I prefer this version

http://youtu.be/HXSZk_EpDio


42 posted on 03/07/2014 11:22:26 AM PST by representativerepublic (...loose lips, sink ships)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: discostu

see post #42


43 posted on 03/07/2014 11:24:15 AM PST by representativerepublic (...loose lips, sink ships)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: representativerepublic

I wore out 1 cassette of Live After Death and 2 Power Slaves before finally getting them on CD.


44 posted on 03/07/2014 11:25:28 AM PST by discostu (I don't meme well.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: Borges

No. Lol. Those books probably wouldn’t be allowed in high school. At least the Game of Thrones wouldn’t be.

For Christmas, we gave my son the Stephen King classics: The Shining, Salem’s Lot, Needful Things (my wife is a fan). He has been watching the Game of Thrones series on DVD and decided that he liked it so much that he bought the book. His friend recommended it.

The Shakespeare recitation was for school.

Funny story: my wife had never read “To Kill A Mockingbird” and she decided to read it after my son was done with it. She said it is one of the BEST books she had ever read. Lol.


45 posted on 03/07/2014 11:27:44 AM PST by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: representativerepublic

Lol. Cool song!


46 posted on 03/07/2014 11:33:53 AM PST by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 42 | View Replies]

To: discostu

Up the Irons!


47 posted on 03/07/2014 12:04:58 PM PST by representativerepublic (...loose lips, sink ships)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Borges

My son is a freshman in high school IB program and he is currently reading The Odyssey and they are reading Romeo & Juliet next.


48 posted on 03/07/2014 12:06:49 PM PST by representativerepublic (...loose lips, sink ships)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Borges

Guess there’s really no point in studying the history and evolution of English in an English class.

If they want “the same themes”, why don’t they just read comic books.


49 posted on 03/07/2014 12:10:04 PM PST by Jack Hammer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: MarDav

I just don’t see how instilling a loathing of reading in young people and then lamenting the low information voter makes any sense at all.
I know a guy who had a teacher like that. He is proud of not having read a book since he graduated. And he votes like every other low info voter. I had a great teacher who encouraged reading even though she didn’t care for my choice of Sweet Valley High. Currently reading a biography of Reagan, just finished The Life and Death of Anne Boleyn, which was fascinating.
Just different styles I guess, but I know which one I think was better.


50 posted on 03/07/2014 12:39:38 PM PST by chae (I was anti-Obama before it was cool)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345

He never tells me that he’s sick of this house
He never says why don’t you get off that couch?
He don’t cost me nothin when he wants to go out
I want you to love me like my dog

He never says I need a new attitude
Him and my sister ain’t always in a feud
When I leave the seat up he don’t think that it’s rude
I want you to love me like my dog does Baby

When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog

He never acts like he don’t care for my friends
He never asks me where in the hell have you been?
He don’t play dead when I wanna pet him
I want you to love me like my dog does honey

He never says ‘I wish you made more money’
He always thinks that pull my finger is funny
I want you to love me like my dog

He don’t get mad at me and throw a major fit
When I say his sister is a b**ch!

I want you to love me like my dog does baby
When I come home, I want you to just go crazy
He never looks at me like he might hate me
I want you to love me like my dog...

-— Billy Currington


51 posted on 03/07/2014 12:53:59 PM PST by Mr Rogers (I sooooo miss America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Mr Rogers

Lol.

Nothing like a good ol’ pooch. :)


52 posted on 03/07/2014 1:02:22 PM PST by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345

It won’t woo the girls, but it has its own wisdom about “True Love”!

;>)


53 posted on 03/07/2014 1:16:20 PM PST by Mr Rogers (I sooooo miss America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: Borges

My 8th grader is reading Romeo & Juliet. 5th grader reading Where the Red Fern Grows.


54 posted on 03/07/2014 1:23:49 PM PST by Wyatt's Torch
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Mr Rogers
Pets are the greatest. I am watching the All Creatures Great and Small series on netflix.

It is a good show if you are interested. People love their animals and their animals love them back.

People show their vulnerable side to their pets because pets are not judgmental. There is a story about a rich widow who spoils her dog. Or a story about an old man whose black lab has cancer....

You should watch it.

55 posted on 03/07/2014 2:17:05 PM PST by dhs12345
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: camle

How about Winston Churchill? Very readable.


56 posted on 03/07/2014 2:25:11 PM PST by cornelis
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: dhs12345

Thanks. I’ll check it out.


57 posted on 03/07/2014 2:28:31 PM PST by Mr Rogers (I sooooo miss America!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]

To: cornelis

yes, a very good read


58 posted on 03/07/2014 4:13:56 PM PST by camle (keep an open mind and someone will fill it full of something for you)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: kalee

Place marker


59 posted on 03/07/2014 4:37:49 PM PST by kalee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Borges

Mostly classics, and here’s why, “classical, Christian education teaches children to think clearly and to love beauty and the past. Countless books by Christian educators are flooding publishers and websites because classical, Christian education nurtures children into life-long learners.”

I say mostly, because there are some moderns that are very influential and also need to be read, such as G.K. Chesterton, or C.S. Lewis, or William Bradford, or, John Bunyan.


60 posted on 03/13/2014 3:26:15 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a classical Christian approach to homeschool])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson