The lack of cultural literacy becomes noticeable even earlier than high
school. One of my middle school LA teachers began to teach the tales of
King Arthur recently and had a terrible time with her 7th graders since
very few of them knew much, if anything, about King Arthur, the era, the
vocabulary, etc. She ended up spending so much time teaching them the
background that they never got through all the tales! When she began it
with another class a few weeks later she was better prepared for their
lack of background knowledge but disappointed at their lack of interest.
She (and I) couldn't imagine not being interested in knights, battles,
etc. Most of them had never heard of a damsel in distress or a knight in
shining armor! What's more, all the 6th graders in our school have world
history but evidently never touch upon King Arthur...how sad. Of course,
we also have noticed that more and more students don't recognize fairy
tales and nursery rhymes either. What's saddest of all, they may never
know what they've missed!
Liz
Liz McMahon
Library Media Specialist
Messalonskee Middle School Library
33 School Bus Drive
Oakland, ME 04963
lmcmahon@msad47.org
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