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roachboy · 04-07-2008, 10:34 AM

well, i dont know folks: you'd think that creating and maintaining a more rather than less open environment for kids in school would be better, wouldn't you?
more inquiry rather than less--more ability to address coherently issues that might be discomfiting rather than less.
you'd think that enabling kids to experience more rather than less intellectual freedom would be desirable--because maybe then, at the least, they'd have a sense of what was being lost when their reactionary parents decide that they don't like the politics of a particular book--or when later they as parents have to debate this kind of issue amongst themselves.

that's why i'm opposed to banning books.

i don't know if i'd teach "beloved" to high school kids, though, not because i am concerned that it'd freak them out, but because i don't know if they have the background reading other things to see how the novel works.
it'd depend on the students.
it'd depend on the school.

i've taught books that are way beyond the level of students before, and it sometimes is very interesting and productive and sometimes it isn't.
again, it depends on the students, the school, the course, etc.

so there's pedagogical reasons to include or exclude particular texts---so it's simply not the case that because it's possible to teach a book to high school kids that every book will be taught to them. i mean, i guess you *could* teach ulysses to high school kids, but it'd have to be part of a program that sets them up to deal with literary modernism.

personally, i think one of the stranger little problems is that kids are taught to be superficial readers by giving them superficial books and discussing them in superficial ways--so it's hard to convince them that they'll probably have to reread alot of more complicated books, and that they'll see them differently each time they do it. like their one-dimensional parents, they want everything easy peasy, all on the surface--they dont want to work at understanding because they don't think they should have to.

i'd worry more about that than about whether some book might "turn little johnny gay" or some other such idiocy.

04-07-2008, 10:34 AM	#10 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	well, i dont know folks: you'd think that creating and maintaining a more rather than less open environment for kids in school would be better, wouldn't you? more inquiry rather than less--more ability to address coherently issues that might be discomfiting rather than less. you'd think that enabling kids to experience more rather than less intellectual freedom would be desirable--because maybe then, at the least, they'd have a sense of what was being lost when their reactionary parents decide that they don't like the politics of a particular book--or when later they as parents have to debate this kind of issue amongst themselves. that's why i'm opposed to banning books. i don't know if i'd teach "beloved" to high school kids, though, not because i am concerned that it'd freak them out, but because i don't know if they have the background reading other things to see how the novel works. it'd depend on the students. it'd depend on the school. i've taught books that are way beyond the level of students before, and it sometimes is very interesting and productive and sometimes it isn't. again, it depends on the students, the school, the course, etc. so there's pedagogical reasons to include or exclude particular texts---so it's simply not the case that because it's possible to teach a book to high school kids that every book will be taught to them. i mean, i guess you could teach ulysses to high school kids, but it'd have to be part of a program that sets them up to deal with literary modernism. personally, i think one of the stranger little problems is that kids are taught to be superficial readers by giving them superficial books and discussing them in superficial ways--so it's hard to convince them that they'll probably have to reread alot of more complicated books, and that they'll see them differently each time they do it. like their one-dimensional parents, they want everything easy peasy, all on the surface--they dont want to work at understanding because they don't think they should have to. i'd worry more about that than about whether some book might "turn little johnny gay" or some other such idiocy. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite