There used to be a website that offered "research timesaver notes and paper topics so you don't have to read Lord of the Rings." Deliberately calculated to sound completely plausible and to guarantee a failing grade if used. Really artfully done, too; a kid who'd even sat in a class discussing it but not paying attention would be taken hook, line and sinker.
The one time I was working in a bookstore I remember how every year, around the end of the summer, kids would come in looking for the movie versions of the books they'd been assigned for summer reading. With their parents standing right there, ready to pay for their children to cheat at the only critical thinking class still remaining in the curriculum.
I did my damnedest to discourage it, but it wasn't helped by the teachers. One of them assigned a choice between The Hobbit, Great Expectations, and Roots, presumably to offer a non-British selection.
The Hobbit is 320 pages, absolutely a reasonable size for a summer reading assignment for a sixth-grader.
Great Expectations is 544 pages and not an easy read. Too much for that age and the teacher should have known it.
Roots is 688 pages in type that I needed a magnifying glass to read. Oh, it's a fantastic book, but it's college-level.
In other words, the teacher assigned books based on their titles and descriptions, not even having physical copies of the books handy to examine and check them for suitability. I doubt she read any of them herself.
The one time I was working in a bookstore I remember how every year, around the end of the summer, kids would come in looking for the movie versions of the books they'd been assigned for summer reading. With their parents standing right there, ready to pay for their children to cheat at the only critical thinking class still remaining in the curriculum.
I did my damnedest to discourage it, but it wasn't helped by the teachers. One of them assigned a choice between The Hobbit, Great Expectations, and Roots, presumably to offer a non-British selection.
The Hobbit is 320 pages, absolutely a reasonable size for a summer reading assignment for a sixth-grader.
Great Expectations is 544 pages and not an easy read. Too much for that age and the teacher should have known it.
Roots is 688 pages in type that I needed a magnifying glass to read. Oh, it's a fantastic book, but it's college-level.
In other words, the teacher assigned books based on their titles and descriptions, not even having physical copies of the books handy to examine and check them for suitability. I doubt she read any of them herself.
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