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The Life and Mind of DamnBlackHeart
This is to help me stay actively writing. So expect to see rants, tips on writing, thoughts on subjects, me complaining of boredom, reviews, anime, movies, video games, conventions, tv shows and whatever life throws at me.
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Don't Force Them, Let Them Decide What To Read |
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You want to get kids in high school to like reading? Or even before that? I strongly suggest to NOT force them to read the same old tired crap. Being force to read in the guise of education and making it into an assignment to find the "deeper" meaning is why many do not read. We beat it out of them. We club them over the head with boring tripe that is only a classic because some professor declared it to be a classic a hundred years ago. We force them to read these things, until in their mind reading equals tedium, and then we're shocked when as a nation we don't read as much.
Just let them read other things. If they want to read something more modern than let them. If they want to read other kind of classics that aren't on the schools curriculum than let them. Let them read from different genres. Give them a giant list to choose from. News flash, not everybody likes the same thing. I know that it is incredibly difficult for academics to swallow, but it is true.
I honesty did not mind some of the classics that I had to read in school. Some of them I actually liked a lot and some of them I hated. The way I see it, they shouldn't be FORCED. I rather have the children be given a choice to pick something to read instead of automatically hating it because it was turned into an assignment. If one student wants to read The Scarlet Letter over The Lord of the Flies then let them. It's more about letting them have a choice of what they want to read then being force to read something they could have liked but didn't.
I would have hated reading 1984 but because I wasn't force to read it for school I liked it a lot. My history teacher was the one who suggested it to me and before she did, she took into consideration my interests of what I like. She was pretty sure I would like it and once I read it on my own time and pace, I agree. I liked it and it's a book I would recommend to someone else who has similar tastes as I.
Again, if I had been forced to read that or any of my favorite classics in English class, then months of discussing the hidden themes (that may or may not have been there) and then getting tested on it would've beaten any enjoyment right out of those works.
Here are some that I enjoyed and would have like to be given a choice to read in school without being force to read the other usual classics. Plus, I think some of these works would appeal to many kids interests.
The Lord of the Rings, 1984, The Hobbit, Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Cristo, Alice in Wonderland, Animal Farm, The Chronicles of Narnia, Dracula, Go Ask Alice, Flowers for Algernon, The Great Gatsby, Gulliver's Travels, Jane Eyre, The Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dune, Jurassic Park, Ender's Game, Beowulf, A Clockwork Orange, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Inferno, The Sword Of Shannara, The Lost World, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, The Haunting of Hill House, I Am Legend, The Exorcist, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Raven, etc.
 DamnBlackHeart · Wed Mar 23, 2011 @ 03:36am · 0 Comments |
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