Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with what’s included in a high school/college reading list. I’m from another (non-English-speaking) country, and not having read Orwell would still be something embarrassing for an educated person to admit.

+1

Too bad in your non-English speaking country, they didn't teach you the difference between an opinion and a fact.

Sincerely-
Native English speaker who knows there's no universal canon of literature that is required to be considered educated

Of course, it's an opinion, and once enough people share this opinion it becomes embarrassing to admit that you haven't read certain books, authors, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with what’s included in a high school/college reading list. I’m from another (non-English-speaking) country, and not having read Orwell would still be something embarrassing for an educated person to admit.

+1

Too bad in your non-English speaking country, they didn't teach you the difference between an opinion and a fact.

Sincerely-
Native English speaker who knows there's no universal canon of literature that is required to be considered educated

Of course, it's an opinion, and once enough people share this opinion it becomes embarrassing to admit that you haven't read certain books, authors, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with what’s included in a high school/college reading list. I’m from another (non-English-speaking) country, and not having read Orwell would still be something embarrassing for an educated person to admit.

+1

Too bad in your non-English speaking country, they didn't teach you the difference between an opinion and a fact.

Sincerely-
Native English speaker who knows there's no universal canon of literature that is required to be considered educated

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with what’s included in a high school/college reading list. I’m from another (non-English-speaking) country, and not having read Orwell would still be something embarrassing for an educated person to admit.

+1

Anonymous wrote:This has nothing to do with what’s included in a high school/college reading list. I’m from another (non-English-speaking) country, and not having read Orwell would still be something embarrassing for an educated person to admit.

Anonymous wrote:Sure, in 1984 we read 1984. Unfortunately, more great books have come along since and she was probably busy reading those. Ones you've never heard of.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an English teacher. Yes, I have taught Orwell: 1984, Animal Farm, and an extensive collection of his essays

…and I’m saddened by OP’s question. There are so many works out there. So many. This teacher shouldn’t be criticized because she isn’t familiar with one of them.

I had a parent call me out for not being intimately familiar with Tolstoy. I recall being horrified that my 20 years of successful teaching were being erased because I wasn’t ready for an impromptu discussion about Anna Karenina. Somehow that became such a fault, as if I couldn’t teach a proper thesis statement because Tolstoy was absent from my nightstand.

You should not be teaching

Orwell is 100 percent required reading for a competent English teacher

I wrote that I’ve taught Orwell. One can assume, therefore, that I’ve also read it. Can I keep my teaching certification? Is that okay with you?

Now what about Fitzgerald? Morrison? Whitman? Hawthorne? Elliot? Faulkner? Salinger? Hurston? Vonnegut? Angelou? Baldwin? Poe? Bradbury? Kerouac? London?

Which authors are required reading for “competent” English teachers? Let’s get that list compiled so we can start firing right away. I mean, there’s a TON of people out there begging to try out the workload of an English teacher. We should give them a chance (as long as they’ve read Orwell).

This. Anyone who's studied English will tell you there is no "cannon" that everyone has read.

And that's also not a terribly helpful way to look at the study of English. It's not about having read a certain list of books. It's about teaching how to read, to recognize how authors are employing certain tactics, and how to write about literature. No AP English test just grills you on random books, it's a test of analysis.

I was actually discussing this with my mom, we studied literature in college (she majored, I minored) almost 40 years apart and our experiences were actually very different. We both read Moby Dick, for instance, but my mom's class approached it as this very serious book whereas my class fully embraced pointing out the humor and sex jokes.

Anonymous wrote:Also, Op's 11th grader is suggesting Animal Farm as a high school curriculum option. I read it in middle school a gazillion years ago, and my MCPS 8th grader is also reading it in 8th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow thought Orwell’s Animal Farm eas read by everyone, specially a teacher.

No, why would you think that?

Perhaps, the PP thinks that because they are narrow minded. There is no single book that "everyone" reads.

More like hipster condescending. There are a few books that almost every American old enough to be a parent read. Animal Farm, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Gatsby.

Nope, narrow-minded is accurate. Most of us who get to adulthood realize that our experiences aren't universal.

Except, those three books were indeed virtually universal. That's just the reality of how things were and trying to gaslight people into believing otherwise is very ironic considering that we're talking about Orwell.

Multiple people have told you that they didn't read those books in AP English or in college so no, they aren't virtually universal. Even 20 years ago when I was in high school we were reading different things in AP lit.