Hi Barbara,
I understand what you are saying. However, I must relate my own experiences and
how I feel about them.
When I was in high school in the 1970s, my school went to a lot of 1 semester
length classes in the sciences and in the language arts. I liked this, as I got to
take Zoology and skip Botany (which I regretted in college since I ended up being a
Science teacher!) for my science credits. For language arts, I was able to take
"Modern World Novel" and "Contemporary American Novel". I learned a lot and read
some wonderful books...however, I completely missed reading many classics. People
are often surprised when I confess that I haven't read many books that it seems
"everyone read in high school". I only read one Shakespeare...Romeo and Juliet, in
the 9th grade! I have felt completely ignorant, and I am an avid reader.
I have managed to "catch up" on a lot of this because at the end of the last
century (Wow, I am old!) a list of the 100 greatest novels was produced, and I cut
it out, planning to read each book on the list. Alas, some are too
much..."Ulysses", for one, regardless of how hard I tried merely put me to
sleep...but others, like "Native Son" were spectacular.
It is true that one size does not fit all. However, there are certain minimal
expectations of the "educated", and some of these are about books we all should
read in our lifetimes.
Debbie Piper
Technology Product Assistant, Digital Solutions Group
Cengage Learning
5191 Natorp Boulevard
Mason, Ohio 45040
513.229.1623 | debbie.piper@cengage.com
-----Original Message-----
From: School Library Media & Network Communications
[mailto:LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU] On Behalf Of Barbara Braxton
Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 5:37 PM
To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: VENT: Teacher Joke
Message 1 in my Inbox ...
Barbara K. wrote " The students were concerned that not all of the 20 or so
participants would like
the books--to which I responded that it would not be possible to find one title
that would interest
every member of a group that size"
Message 2 in my Inbox
A request for novels for a class study - a common thing on the lists I belong to.
Maybe it's my quirky DownUnder humour, but I can see a real irony in this. When do
we start to
acknowledge that each student is an individual and we stop these one-size-fits-all
studies? Surely
it would be more effective to identify the key elements of the purpose of the study
(whether it be
theme, plot structure; character development or whatever) and develop some
pertinent but generic
questions that could be investigated and answered by the students by reading a
novel of their
choice, one that meets their interests and needs and abilities. It would also
eliminate the need to
purchase multiple copies of the one title that is never used again, or worse, one
that gets the
reputation of "It's Year 9 so it's Oliver Twist year - groan". We had this
approach in the 60s
when I was at school -- have we learned nothing and travelled nowhere in 40+ years?
Barbara
Barbara Braxton
Teacher Librarian
COOMA NSW 2630
AUSTRALIA
E. barbara.288@bigpond.com
Together we learn from each other
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