Classics

[in_the_attic]

Hello!

I have a rather odd question: Does anyone else find reading classics easier to read than reading contemporary fiction, young-adult, or anything modern? I can relate to the characters better in a classics, the stories seem more realistic, and every time I try to read something new, I end up throwing the book away, especially young-adult books. The situations just don't seem real.

It'd be nice to know if anyone else is like this! :)

-In_the_Attic

Comments

[paceisthetrick]

What kills me is that my students will have packets to complete (yes they are given a grade for it!) for STAAR (we're in Texas) and it can take up to five hours. This is pure bullshit! Remember when we just "educated" and then tested to see what we knew or what our aptitude toward learning was??? Now -- because performance dicatates federal funding -- the test is everything. We literally grind to a halt in October and start ramping up for STAARs.

I actually made my 6th graders read Hunger Games and we discussed it in the context of today's films (Russian Roulette in The Deer Hunter, the mongoose/cobra fighting scene in the first Daniel Craig James Bond and then went back and looked at the gladiators and Roman forms of entertainment to see if man had progressed or not. Now THAT is an example of YA lit worth reading!

[ex_bad_wolf566]

what's the packet entail? i taught higher ed but i'm basing my statements off my secondary school student teaching and the 9th and 10th graders we have in our home.

oh yes, the good old days when teachers taught material and the students retained it well enough to write a 1,000 word essay about what they learned. it happens here in the Midwest, as well. (though i'm from the UK, i've taught both places) it's the NEsa test, here. half a year's worth of education tossed in the bin so that the student body can become a well-oiled test-taking machine.

ah! it is a great example. i've done much the same in a low level mythology course. it's amazing to me just how many people are ignorant of classical antiquity's affect on popular culture. from Hunger Games to The Matrix to Death Race 2000 and the connections all the way back to Plato's Republic.

[paceisthetrick]

Practice tests, much as one does practice SATs, GREs, etc.

It's the amount of time spent on the practice that irritates me. Then the school board announced that if no one passed the test (because we now have the "Answer A is good, but answer B is better!!!" bullshit), they would then let anyone with a grade of X or above pass.

It's just ludicrous. They make a mockery of education!

[paceisthetrick]

Do they test in the UK? My kids did the IB program (my youngest just went to college in Ireland) and the grading seemed much more reasonable.

There is so much money in the industry that preps students for tests! Damn straight they won't give that up. I mean, if you can get mom and dad to cough up $3,000 per kid to pass each grade, would you give it up? They are the most powerful lobby in state legislatures next to pharmaceutical companies.

Yes, 99% of my students had no idea that people were used for entertainment in forced conditions. I didn't use the sex slave trade, focusing instead on dog fighting (big here in Texas), cock fighting in earlier times (I used the James Bond clip as an example). I really wanted to get into the whole "gentlemen's clubs" thing but that would have cost me my job. *grins*