The problem with schools these days

Why don't they choose readable classics?

Published on June 20, 2005 By cactoblasta In Misc

To begin with this article needs a bit of an introduction. A few weeks back I watched 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' on DVD (it came with the infinitely better 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in a twin pack). I was surprised to realise that I had never heard of one of the characters, Dorian Gray (all the characters save the token American hero are from 19th century literature).

So when I saw 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' at the bookshop I decided to buy it. I was surprised. Here was a book more than a hundred years old which was actually funny! It was witty and had some great one-liners which are still mimicked continually today. Why weren't books like this taught in schools rather than the frankly terrible Dickens monstrosities we were forced to read?

It's a damn travesty, I reckon.

Comments (Page 1)

Champas Socialist

on Jun 20, 2005

Well, as it is a Wilde piece, some people do study it, but there is a trend away from "classics" these days. Classics are generally only considered as such because of their ability to perpetuate the mainstream culture. But studying "classics" with a critical literacy focus, that is, studying how they perpetuate the mainstream culture, is an interesting area of study.

cactoblasta

on Jun 20, 2005

Maybe you're right. But I've always thought that a lot of the rubbish served up doesn't do much to perpetuate the mainstream culture save remind kids how boring old people are. I guess that's important though.

ParaTed2k

on Jun 20, 2005

I don't know why that one doesn't make more "required reading" lists in school. Maybe because it got replaced by yawn inspiring crap like "Old Man and the Sea", and "The Pearl".

After reading many classics, I sometimes wonder why teachers and administrators don't just let the book have the humane funeral they deserve. Keeping them alive through artificial (forced) means seems so mean! ;~D

I'll have to look for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" and check it out.

Dr Guy

on Jun 20, 2005

Tom Sawyer is a 'Token American Hero' you have never heard of?

YOu have not heard of Mark twain?

MasonM

on Jun 20, 2005

Must depend on when/where you went to school as The Picture of Dorian Gray was indeed required reading when I went to school as were Mark Twain's writings, Shakespeare, and Dickens among others.

cactoblasta

on Jun 21, 2005

Tom Sawyer is a 'Token American Hero' you have never heard of?

YOu have not heard of Mark twain?

Was that who he was supposed to be? I guess I didn't pay enough attention when he got introduced. Sorry Doctor!

I'll edit my intro if I can get the computer to accept it.

dynamaso

on Jun 21, 2005

The problem I have with some of the required reading is it has no significance to Australian school kids. I had to read 'Lord of the Flies', 'The Great Gastby', 'Wuthering Heights', 'The Old Man And The Sea' and 'Of Mice And Men', amongst others. The only Australian book on my curriculum (this is going back 25 years or more) was 'The Chant Of Jimmy Blacksmith'. Sure, the above reading list, for the most part, are classics, but there was very little social or cultural relevance.

BTW, I enjoyed 'League...' even if the cheese was piled high. But then, I'd been a fan of the comic series prior to the movie being made, so I was pleased to see it come to life on the big screen.

Cheers,

Maso

-----

on Jun 21, 2005

Maybe because it got replaced by yawn inspiring crap like "Old Man and the Sea", and "The Pearl".

--These are all definantly "YAWN" books...*starts to fall asleep and snore...cacto jabs him awake..."oh-sorry!" * J/K

"I liked reading Dorian Gray [I have grandparents that share the last name...

] I agree that there is a drive (figurativley) to put mainstream books, such as Harry potter, Tolkien (though i like the series) and other books, the classics, such as dickens, wilde, etc... are become, Classic...( I am a HUGE reader...i can finish a book (and understand it) in 2-3 days...most of the time i take time to read it, as a matter of fact, i am reading an alternate history novel by Harry Turtledove ( "In The Presence of Mine Enemies") (Its about jews living in nazi germany if hitler was succesfull in his ambitions...what a thought...)

--I say we start a petition to save them, to keep them in schools...

See ya, Doc B.

trina_p

on Jun 21, 2005

My required reading was The Pinballs by Betsy Byars (yr8). Taronga by Victor Kelleher (yr9)(which I loathed) The Outsiders by SE Hinton (yr10) Mandragora by David McRobbie (yr11) Lord of the Flies by William Golding, Picnic at Hanging Rock Joan Lyndsay (yr12)

3 of which were by Australian authors.

Other classes the same years did Tomorrow then the war began, 1984, Queen Kat Carmel & St Jude get a life,

We were never offered any of those "classics" although every year we had to do a Shakespeare unit and a drama unit (the property of the clan, two weeks with the queen, can't remember any others.

-----

on Jun 21, 2005

The Outsiders

Lord of the Flies

Tomorrow then the war began

--I like all three of those, though LOTF was awkward...,as for the third one, i liked it the most, but it seemed to be written too "child like" it didn't seem like a book to have in a 10th grade english class....but oh well...

We were never offered any of those "classics" although every year we had to do a Shakespeare unit and a drama unit (the property of the clan, two weeks with the queen, can't remember any others

--yeah, me too, although we did three different, Romeo and juliet, Hamlet, and *cough* (believe it or not) Cats....

luckily i was able to get a backstage job on that one...wouldn't fancy myself in a cat costume...

See ya, Doc B

cactoblasta

on Jun 27, 2005

Yeah I got hit with a lot of these dull old foreign books. But I can't say I really wanted to read Australian authors instead. They usually fit into two camps - the overwhelmingly pretentious (for example writing without using punctuation or only about 'issues') or the just plain bad.

There must be a lot of classics or acceptable modern books that are worth reading - 'To Kill a Mockingbird', '1984', 'Brave New World', 'The Outsiders' etc come to mind. I just don't see why they choose the godawful ones like anything by Dickens or Shakespeare's more obscure monstrosities.

And I agree with you trina - taronga was terrible. I had to read that in year 8, along with some book about some wizard called Ged or something.

Surely there's better stuff out there.

dynamaso

on Jun 27, 2005

Makes me wonder what the next generation of kids will have to read. Lets hope it is not the Harry Potter series or anything by Dan Brown.

Cheers,

Maso

cactoblasta

on Jun 28, 2005

Makes me wonder what the next generation of kids will have to read. Lets hope it is not the Harry Potter series or anything by Dan Brown.

Disagree if you like but I think the Harry Potter series is great. I reckon it's extremely well written, and although it's declined over the course of the series they're still some of the best books I've ever read. Issue-wise they're perhaps not so great but then again books about issues are usually unrelentingly terrible, so that's not such a bad thing.

I agree with you about Dan Brown though. The last thing kids need to read is some excessively technical thriller with dull characters and a predictable plot. That's what Shakespeare is for (and yes, I know his stories were original in the beginning. But most kids are going to have seen 10 things I hate about you before reading the taming of the shrew, so by sheer prodigious originality Shakespeare appears unoriginal and predictable).

Zoomba

on Jun 28, 2005

My required school readings:
The Outsiders (9th grade)
Romeo & Juliet (9th grade)
The Giver (9th grade)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (9th grade)
Death of a Salesman (9th Grade)
Julius Caesar (10th Grade)
A Tale of Two Cities (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) (10th Grade)
Anthony & Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw (10th Grade)
The Grapes of Wrath (11th Grade)
1984 (12th Grade)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (12th Grade)
The Scarlet Letter (12th Grade)
To Kill a Mockingbird (12th Grade)
Catcher in the Rye (12th Grade)
Hamlet (12th Grade)
----

With the exception of Dickens and maybe The Grapes of Wrath, my reading list in school was pretty good. It covered a wide spread of literature and was usually enjoyable. In addition to those, on my own time I read a lot of books like The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, a number of biographies and autobiographies about prominent Americans as well as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (plus any odd assortment of fluff fiction).

A combination of good book selection in school and my parents being avid readers helped foster a love of reading in me. On my own I now seek out good books and devour them at a rate of roughly one a week. I think there's a misconception by English teachers and administrators that we all ahve to read the same ancient boring books that everyone's been reading in school for years and years. While it is important to be aware of Dickens, reading through one of his more obtuse works is probably not a good way to teach kids about him. If anything, it tends to help build up a hatred for classical literature because it paints the picture that it's all impenetrable.

Schools should start with books that are engaging and entertaining. Have kids cut their teeth on Harry Potter, then as they get older throw in a good measure of Mark Twain for some laughs. Edgar Allen Poe should be sprinkled in a bit to satisfy kid's natural attraction to the gruesome. Books like The Red Badge of Courage and The Giver are outstanding books to give to kids since they are entertaining and deliver solid moral lessons. I'd like to see the Ishmael (Ishmael, The Story of B and My Ishmael) taught in High Schools. The classics like Shakespeare have their place and shouldn't be removed, but the presentation should be better. Shakespeare was not meant to be read straight from a page, it was meant to be acted out! Even the non-thespians in a class are bound to have some fun if the class acts out the play instead of just reading it in their seats. Kids have to be shown that literature can be fun! Most view it as boring and stodgy, something for old people to do, so they watch TV or play video games all the time.

There is so much out there that is an absolute blast to read, but it gets glossed over because we have to teach "classics" even though they've lost some of their relevance in society. Schools teach us that reading is a chore... and we wonder why kids don't like to read

drmiler

on Jun 28, 2005

#14 by Zoomba
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

My required school readings:
The Outsiders (9th grade)
Romeo & Juliet (9th grade)
The Giver (9th grade)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (9th grade)
Death of a Salesman (9th Grade)
Julius Caesar (10th Grade)
A Tale of Two Cities (aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!) (10th Grade)
Anthony & Cleopatra by Bernard Shaw (10th Grade)
The Grapes of Wrath (11th Grade)
1984 (12th Grade)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (12th Grade)
The Scarlet Letter (12th Grade)
To Kill a Mockingbird (12th Grade)
Catcher in the Rye (12th Grade)
Hamlet (12th Grade)
----

With the exception of Dickens and maybe The Grapes of Wrath, my reading list in school was pretty good. It covered a wide spread of literature and was usually enjoyable. In addition to those, on my own time I read a lot of books like The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes, a number of biographies and autobiographies about prominent Americans as well as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings (plus any odd assortment of fluff fiction).

Look at it this way zoom...at least they didn't make you read "War and Peace".

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