In Defense of School Books

[sistermagpie]

So there was this article about a middle school teacher who, instead of assigning a book for the class to read, told every kid to pick a book they wanted. And this led to, among other things, a blog post that stood up against class-assigned reading. The post contained a lot of criticisms of school-assigned lit that I'd heard before, and some of

Comments

[trobadora]

I seriously wonder where this idea comes from that reading for a school assignment should be primarily about enjoyment. I always thought it was about learning something, you know. No one argues that learning maths should be about enjoyment! *grumbles*

Okay, slightly less facetiously - while I absolutely applaud the idea that reading for pleasure is a good thing, and that children should be encouraged to enjoy their preferred texts rather than forced to replace them with something considered "worthy", I'm quite bothered by the idea that all books are created equal, and all kinds of readings are created equal, and they can all be replaced by or substituted for each other. They can't, and that's not about inherent worthiness of any book or reading strategy. (And hell, we don't generally just throw numbers at our kids and expect them to magically figure out what to do with them.)

[sistermagpie]

Yes, I actually feel that in some cases it's sort of a trick on people to act like no book is better than another. There are ways in which someone can lay out values and compare books to those values. Of course everyone doesn't have to agree. An lit professor might point to Anna Karenina and explain why it is a great work; another person might point to a little book her mom wrote that's full of flat characters and cliches but they love it and found Anna Karenina boring and didn't get it. That's the subjective part. But sometimes it feels like the "no book is better than any other" can be condescending and dishonest

[trobadora]

Yes, exactly! Standards can be very subjective, but that doesn't mean they don't exist - and then there are cultural standards. Which, even (or especially) if you don't agree with them, you should be aware of. Ignorance isn't bliss, and I find it really problematic when that kind of thinking comes up in the context of school of all things.

[etrangere]

No one argues that learning maths should be about enjoyment!
I do!

[ptyx]

No, you're not the only one. I too liked most books I was assigned in school. But sometimes I disagree with the timing of the assignments. Some books seem too mature, or too sophisticated, as you put it, and I think it's not a good strategy to assign them too early. At least that's how I feel about the way things are done in Brazil. I agree with you that you learn to read sophisticated things, but there must be some kind of progression. And many teachers don't enjoy most books they assign, so they pass on to the students the notion that reading is not fun, it's just an obligation. And that's very, very sad. That's why I think that, before starting to assign books, the teachers should help children to find out that reading is fun.

[sistermagpie]

I've had that experience too, where I read a book too early--whether by assignment or my own bad choice. It's not even usually a question of language but the experience the author is writing about. Sometimes it just goes over your head. I remember being frustrated by some customers in the bookstore who insisted in buying their kids books way above their level because they were so adamant about their reading level being so high. And I would try to explain it had nothing to do with them not being good readers, just their interests changing as they got older.

But yes, ITA that you should learn reading is fun first--which can happen if kids are allowed to read freely at an early age. What's depressing is that a lot of textbooks in the states that are supposed to teach reading seriously make it not fun. They stick in all these tedious questions after every few paragraphs instead of just letting kids read the story through and then answer questions or whatever. It's a fairly new thing and it's ridiculous.

[azuresquirrel]

As an English major, and someone who would like to be a professor someday, I must say, RIGHT ON

[sistermagpie]

I've never understood the style of English teaching that teaches that something means X and that's it. Partly because it seems like it's just so obviously not true! And also the whole idea that the author has to mean something for it to be there. I was really lucky in college that I had so many teachers who were great that way. I remember when I was a sophomore or something I had to do a paper that I really enjoyed, and the teacher wrote a note on it that said she didn't actually agree with my premise at all (it technically wasn't my premise because this assignment was about looking up other published criticism and using it, but she disagree with the reading more than I did), but I argued it really well. I always remembered it because that's really what it's about

[sistermagpie]

Oh man, that Willy Loman story drives me crazy! I mean, if you're studying tragic characters as a thing and you're having to explain how he fits it, fine. But I'm more interested to hear what the kid thought about him being pathetic and why. That would actually probably be really informative.DoaS isn't exactly a play that's necessarily going to mean something to teenagers.

I love all these mentions of Ethan Frome. It totally makes me think about reading it in high school. That book is so...wtf?

[go_back_chief]

I saw that article as well, and the idea of kids chosing their own books didn't bug me. But I thought that the article ignored an important compromise: have the class reading list be a mix of kid picks PLUS the classics.

That's pretty much how it was when I was in school anyway, and from looking at the sortiment at the high school I worked at last term, it still seems to be. Of course, the books of "our own choice" would rarely be an entirely free choice, more like we'd have a list of books that we could choose from, or we were supposed to pick a book by certain authors or certain eras or even certain publishers, but the element of own choice was definitely there. And both then and now the teachers would mix real classics with more "popular at the time books". If anything has changed they're more openminded about the modern books now (I don't remember my own teachers ever assigning me fantasy books, for instance) but the classic list seems to be pretty much identical.

[sistermagpie]

Right--and I think that's a great way to do it, though there's also times when everybody studying X book is fine too. I can't remember any group study of an assigned book was ever that traumatic for me. It's not like I haven't picked horrible books for myself sometimes too.

[conuly]

If you read the article, the kids were being steered towards more "weighty" novels based on their previous picks - one kid was headed towards I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, another was given To Kill a Mockingbird, that sort of thing.

[sistermagpie]

Me too--definitely a mix of both. Actually, I assume that's the default because even if you're at a school that assigns all books specifically, presumably you should be free to pick whatever you want on your own for fun

[azuresquirrel]

Oh yes, book reports are wonderful things and classes should keep doing them! I guess my reply sounded a little authoritarian because most of the comments to this article seemed to be to the effect of "Why should we make kids read things they won't like such as To Kill a Mockingbird? Let's have them discuss Gossip Girl!" to which I was quite offended.

But yes, kids should be able to choose some of the things they read for school. But personal choice shouldn't be a factor in every assignment, or what would be the point of even going to school? - "Here, do these fractions if you feel like it!"