Literature:
Change the literature we teach, and the way we teach it
General topics related to teaching literature
Specific literature books - Bad Literature / Good Literature
Talking about this walks a fine
line with my friends and beliefs.
I am an artist. I love art. I go out for everything - theater,
music, movies, paintings, sculpture, poetry.
And as such, many of my best friends are those who love to read.
Many good friends are also Literature teachers.
But, alas, this is where we differ.
I believe that most of the literature that schools force students
to read are bad art. Much of the art is vague, depressing, weird,
and offers nothing good to show.
I thought this when I was in school.
And as I have read more, as I have seen more art, as I have
produced more art of my own (and very successfully), I am more
and more convinced of this fact:
Much of the literature taught in school is terrible, and should
be scrapped in favor of other novels.
Again, I love art, I love my artist friends, I love my English
Teacher friends.
But I do not like the art they define as classics. There are so
many good novels put out every year, other novels that speak more
about human nature, better novels from which we can learn. It is
those novels we should be reading.
General topics related to teaching
literature
The elements that should be in any book we consider teaching as Literature
Specific literature books - Bad Literature
Most of what I put here are those "classic" litaterture books that I think should be scrapped, and I will explain why in detail for each case.
To Kill a Mockingbird
Great Expectations
Specific literature books - Good Literature
The Travels of Huck Finn
Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass
A Christmas Carol
The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings
Around the World in 80 Days
Homer's Iliad and Odyssey
A Tale of Two Cities
Jonathan Swift's satire: Gulliver's Travels
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Catch 22
FYI: I didn't plan on this, but I just realized that many of the
best classic literature are adventures. Remember what I've said
about life - life is a journey, and on the journey we learn. I
think that concept is a key underlying element as to why these
books are useful to have young students read. Of course there is
much, much more to each of these stories than just adventure...