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Reply to "Question from a teacher about your kids... "
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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Oh, and also, I would never try to have a conversation with a friend about the specific merits of a given article without reading the article. The content, sure — “oh yes, Charles Mann argues that the population of the Americas before Columbus was much larger than we thought” but not “Charles Mann has this beautifully lyrical description of Amazonia...” (I’d immediately go “ooh lemme see.”) [/quote] And what if- hear me out- this exact thing happens to kids and they go “wait let me read that” and then they too are doing extra reading just because they were curious. [/quote] I mean, great, but you’re making it sound like the best thing that could come out of your class are kids reading on their own, which as the kid who would have preferred to read her own book in the library than go to English class (and whose kid is the same!) makes me wonder why it should be a required course. But that’s cool, I was already pretty sold on a classical curriculum for my kids. [/quote] You don’t think English should be a required coursewhich? What’s your idea of a classical curriculum without reading and writing? [/quote] Oh, I absolutely think it should be a required course. My point is that OP’s description of how her class makes it sound like the greatest upside is “kids read stuff and enjoy it.” Which, if you already have that covered, makes me wonder why bother. I’d like an English class for my kids that would be s value-add even for a kid who read Shakespeare recreationally. [/quote] Can you tell me what a value-add looks like for you? What is it you want to see your kid walk away with from an English class? (Again, because I’ve been called defensive, this isn’t pushback... I’m genuinely curious.) [/quote] Off the top of my head, an idea of how to identify symbolism, how to write an essay about what a text “means” (or one thing it could mean), ideally an opinion about whether the author’s intent matters to what the text means, enough familiarity with the English-language canon that they can recognize allusions when they run into them, a lot of practice close reading... Basically I’d like my kid to graduate from high school ready for a mid-level college literature course. I was (it was a private school), although I actually got most of that from Classics courses rather than English. Reading literature is reading literature, though — it’s nice not to have to worry about genitive absolutes. [/quote]
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