Musing Mondays is a weekly meme that asks you to choose one of the following prompts to answer:
I’m currently reading…
Up next I think I’ll read…
I bought the following book(s) in the past week…
I’m super excited to tell you about (book/author/bookish-news)…
I’m really upset by (book/author/bookish-news)…
I can’t wait to get a copy of…
I wish I could read ___, but…
I blogged about ____ this past week…
Random Question: What do you think of required reading in school?
I recently watched a comment thread while browsing for slime shop work lol, where some kids were complaining about required reading. They said every book on the list was boring ect. I remember really enjoying required reading in school. Sure not every book was a hit but many of them really helped ignite my love of the written word. I just could not understand the huge dislike. Of course I am sure some of it stems from not wanting to be told what to read. I think required reading is important. You never know which kid may be sparked to not only be online but really love books by reading one of the classics. So what do you think?
My problem w/ required reading was always the way that the books were taught. I mean yes, there were always some boring ones (Animal Farm can die honestly), but even the good ones were often made boring just by the way they were taught to us.
No original thought allowed, no discussion of the literary impact of the books, no appreciation of their impact on popular culture of the times they were published. We weren’t even allowed to voice displeasure with the text. I got kicked out of class for saying that I didn’t like Lord of the Flies. (Literally just that, nothing more, nothing inappropriate.)
It was just ridiculously unenjoyable, almost intentionally so.
I also always thought it might be fun if they would let us vote as a class to pick one book a year from a list of acceptable books so that at least once we could be reading something we CHOSE.
I’m with Lee: the way books are taught make a big difference. I was always a huge reader, but everything I read in school made me want to scoop my eyes out with a spoon. My kids are now reading some of the same things I read and they seem to be taught the same way. Haven’t we advanced in 40+ years?