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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jbe who wrote (45998)	7/18/1999 9:23:00 PM
From: epicure	Respond to of 108807

YES!!!!

To: jbe who wrote (45998)	7/19/1999 8:53:00 AM
From: Edwarda	Respond to of 108807

Amen!!!!

To: jbe who wrote (45998)	7/19/1999 11:44:00 PM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

Joan, I think the classics are just fine when children who already have come to love reading want to read them, or are ready to understand them in classroom situations. Obviously, really intelligent and curious children will do fine with them. But really intelligent and curious children are never really the problem in any generation, are they? The crisis we have in American education at present is children not learning to read at all, or learning the basic skills but with no love of reading. And to gradually try to change that, I believe that we have to make reading more joyous and meaningful for average students, not those who excel. So I don't care whether teachers and parents use comic strips, teen fan magazines, badly written adventure stories, or whatever children are attracted to, to teach that love of reading. I also do not think works from the past are better, simply because they are older. Unless you first create a hunger for reading, the debate about whether some teachers might choose "trendy" works is totally irrelevant. And as American children are born much more black and brown (which is the demographic trend) than white, the classic writings of dead white Europeans should not form the majority of reading lists. There are plenty of good writers who have written, and are writing, good literature, representing a wide variety of cultures. I think it is extremely important to include these, and if that is "trendy", too bad! Okay, now I am ducking under my computer table, expecting to have heavy classics lobbed at me from all directions. I would add that my own child loves reading, does it voluntarily, and has asked me to start taking her to poetry readings, and enjoys the Shakespeare to which she has been exposed (although that might have a tiny bit to do with Leonardo di Caprio)!