Why Isn't Milton or Chaucer Taught in Schools Nowadays?

[Anonymous]

Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish students would read Jonathan Swift or Voltaire, and study logic and learn cursive in elementary school, but I accept that times are changing and the curriculum has to evolve. I often check to see what my 10th grader at Wilson is required to read and I can't say that I'm thrilled with the choices, but they are, at least, respectable. However, when my older daughter took AP English with a teacher with a (wholly undeserved) great reputation, I was appalled to find out that they didn't read a single book all the way through, rather they read chapters and excerpts from books. However, they mostly read articles and essays. I knew it was it was going to be a terrible year when the teacher explained to me that he had students read excerpts from Huckleberry Finn and that he taught it as an example of blatant racism. Oy!

Yep. I think I know that teacher!

Not fair, Huck Finn is a tough one to teach when AA's in the classroom have to hear the n word repeatedly--yes, yes. I know, context. but no, don't expect black students to be dispassionate about racially inflammatory themes when they are in HS or MS for that matter.

and anyone who suggests that the book has a plot.


should be shot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

You can say, "Hey, I read that in college too!" (Unless you read it in high school.)

[Anonymous]

I wish students would read Jonathan Swift or Voltaire,

PP who graduated in the mid 2000s who read Donne, Milton, and Shakespeare in high school. We also read Candide in high school. I went to public school, albeit a good one. Has it really changed so much changed in the past decade? I have to believe this varies from school district to school district.

[Anonymous]

I think the question of why is crucial and the difficulty is the answer. It takes work to read a lot of these older authors, their writing was a lot more complex, maybe florid if you will but the effort also enables the ability to analyze complex writing. Most popular even literary work of the last 50 years has been written at about a middle school level. Look at most of the schools people have cited in this string, mostly elite schools. This is why you have studies coming from the OECD that say basically large swaths of Americans can't meet basic level literacy and math, they were not taught anything with complexity, they were given worksheet after worksheet. Not because they were dumb but our system thinks it is too much work to educate kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the question of why is crucial and the difficulty is the answer. It takes work to read a lot of these older authors, their writing was a lot more complex, maybe florid if you will but the effort also enables the ability to analyze complex writing. Most popular even literary work of the last 50 years has been written at about a middle school level. Look at most of the schools people have cited in this string, mostly elite schools. This is why you have studies coming from the OECD that say basically large swaths of Americans can't meet basic level literacy and math, they were not taught anything with complexity, they were given worksheet after worksheet. Not because they were dumb but our system thinks it is too much work to educate kids.

I don't think you've been reading what I've been reading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

You can say, "Hey, I read that in college too!" (Unless you read it in high school.)

You do realize that the problem is the HAVEN'T READ IT.

The modest proposal is a suggestion that the poor Irish eat their babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the question of why is crucial and the difficulty is the answer. It takes work to read a lot of these older authors, their writing was a lot more complex, maybe florid if you will but the effort also enables the ability to analyze complex writing. Most popular even literary work of the last 50 years has been written at about a middle school level. Look at most of the schools people have cited in this string, mostly elite schools. This is why you have studies coming from the OECD that say basically large swaths of Americans can't meet basic level literacy and math, they were not taught anything with complexity, they were given worksheet after worksheet. Not because they were dumb but our system thinks it is too much work to educate kids.

I don't think you've been reading what I've been reading.

What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out

Walk into any bookstore or library, and you'll find shelves and shelves of hugely popular novels and book series for kids. But research shows that as young readers get older, they are not moving to more complex books. High-schoolers are reading books written for younger kids, and teachers aren't assigning difficult classics as much as they once did. http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2013/06/11/190669029/what-kids-are-reading-in-school-and-out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

You can say, "Hey, I read that in college too!" (Unless you read it in high school.)

You do realize that the problem is the HAVEN'T READ IT.

The modest proposal is a suggestion that the poor Irish eat their babies.

They suggest a modest proposal, and they HAVEN'T read it? I'm baffled. I think I'd be incapable of answering at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

You can say, "Hey, I read that in college too!" (Unless you read it in high school.)

You know that it is a satire proposing that the poor irish improve their lot by feeding their children to the rich as food, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jonathan Swift would definitely appeal and is definitely under taught.

At least once every two years in my policy job some know-it-all twenty-something suggests a "modest proposal", usually with an eye toward helping the poor.

It takes a bit more self control than I have to answer without snark.

You can say, "Hey, I read that in college too!" (Unless you read it in high school.)

You do realize that the problem is the HAVEN'T READ IT.

The modest proposal is a suggestion that the poor Irish eat their babies.

They suggest a modest proposal, and they HAVEN'T read it? I'm baffled. I think I'd be incapable of answering at all.

Yes, they use the phrase, as in. "a modest proposal to improve the targetting of pell grants" since it sounds "good" I guess, to their undereducated ears. I just want to barf.

[Anonymous]

Maybe kids just don't have as much of a connection to these authors anymore or the teachers don't know how to teach to these books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, they use the phrase, as in. "a modest proposal to improve the targetting of pell grants" since it sounds "good" I guess, to their undereducated ears. I just want to barf.

Oh. My.

It's on line -- I'd send them the link: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1080 Or maybe the link to the SparkNotes would be better... http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/modestproposal/

[Anonymous]

All three are still in the Brit Lit curriculum at Stone Ridge. They are also required for SO prep.

[Anonymous]

AP prep