I find these comments interesting for obvious professional reasons. I have a slightly different take on this issue from many folks' and I suspect my English classroom teaching experience is the reason.
I think the canon has some value, even if we argue about what should be in it; without a shared body of referents for interpersonal and artistic dialogue, how can we talk to each other? Consequently, I think teachers have not only the right but the responsibility to select some "core" works for students to read. Call me conservative, but every English-fluent person should read at least a few Shakespeare plays (to pick one "gimme" example).
I do think it's good for students to have ownership of their reading choices to some degree, however, and like reading workshop approaches that carve out a block of time and space for kids to read what they like without judgment. (I like to tell my classes that I love superhero comic books even if [or especially because] they're formulaic and soothing.) I just don't think an English curriculum predicated solely on that philosophy would do everything it needs to.
There are books I adore, books that are an essential part of me now, that I am quite sure I never would have read if a teacher hadn't mandated them. Yes, I resisted sometimes, and yes, a lot of stuff didn't stick. Teachers need to insist students give authors a fair shake, but not that they love or even like those authors' work (I still despise Hemingway; probably always will). But the exposure is still valuable, as is the opportunity to discuss and debate what the canon is, or should be, and why.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-08-31 05:08 pm (UTC)I think the canon has some value, even if we argue about what should be in it; without a shared body of referents for interpersonal and artistic dialogue, how can we talk to each other? Consequently, I think teachers have not only the right but the responsibility to select some "core" works for students to read. Call me conservative, but every English-fluent person should read at least a few Shakespeare plays (to pick one "gimme" example).
I do think it's good for students to have ownership of their reading choices to some degree, however, and like reading workshop approaches that carve out a block of time and space for kids to read what they like without judgment. (I like to tell my classes that I love superhero comic books even if [or especially because] they're formulaic and soothing.) I just don't think an English curriculum predicated solely on that philosophy would do everything it needs to.
There are books I adore, books that are an essential part of me now, that I am quite sure I never would have read if a teacher hadn't mandated them. Yes, I resisted sometimes, and yes, a lot of stuff didn't stick. Teachers need to insist students give authors a fair shake, but not that they love or even like those authors' work (I still despise Hemingway; probably always will). But the exposure is still valuable, as is the opportunity to discuss and debate what the canon is, or should be, and why.