High School English Class

Alpha Echo said:

Death of a Salesmen.

That's it.

I hated it. Sorry to anyone who may have liked it. Actually, I just found it really hard to get into plays at all.

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Not at HS, but the worst text I've read at undergrad is Waiting for Godot. Love Joyce, I was just confused by Beckett.

I studied Death of a Salesman at HS and Uni, I think I understood it better at UG, maybe because it was a module on Tragedy. That's why I think so many youngsters get turned off classics, they don't have a decent grasp of what is going on.

I grew to love Virginia Woolf, too, but in my second undergrad degree study. I would have HATED Mrs. Dalloway in HS, and I'm SO glad no one had the bright idea to try and teach it. Same thing with most of the books I read for my English degree. They're NOT for teenagers, never were.

Those books by Laurie Halse Anderson and Suzanne Collins are relateable to YA's, because the MC's ARE them. Even Romeo and Juliet has that going for it - the MC's are the student's age, which makes them characters kids want to read about. And then you can show the Baz Luhrmann Romeo + Juliet and it will all make perfect sense to them (but I'm thinking you'd need school board permission - it's not exactly PG).

I'd argue that THE HUNGER GAMES is a very important novel, in the same way that 1984 is an important novel. In fact, a comparative study of both might make for interesting discussion in a HS English course. And why not??? I'd LOVE to be involved in that type of coursework.

Christine N. said:

And I'd be right back toe to toe with you. I work in elementary and middle grade schools (and I'm officially a school librarian). I WISH more teachers would teach modern books like this. There's room for both, but kids will learn MORE if the book is holding their interest... We beat classics into children 'because they're classics'. Yuck.

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I completely agree. I'm a teacher and you've got to look at your classes from the students perspective if you're going to be successful. The teacher can definitely bring enthusiasm to a subject that otherwise would bore students, but the power of a good accessible book to get discussion going is amazing.