Highly misleading Telegraph article claims US schools will drop fiction reading.
Tom Send a noteboard - 08/12/2012 06:21:03 PM
Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9729383/Catcher-in-the-Rye-dropped-from-US-school-curriculum.html
The article states:
American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014.
A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace.
Books such as JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by "informational texts" approved by the Common Core State Standards.
Suggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Invasive Plant Inventory, by California's Invasive Plant Council.
The new educational standards have the backing of the influential National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and are being part-funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Jamie Highfill, a teacher at Woodland Junior High School in Arkansas, told the Times that the directive was bad for a well-rounded education.
"I'm afraid we are taking out all imaginative reading and creativity in our English classes.
"In the end, education has to be about more than simply ensuring that kids can get a job. Isn't it supposed to be about making well-rounded citizens?"
Supporters of the directive argue that it will help pupils to develop the ability to write concisely and factually, which will be more useful in the workplace than a knowledge of Shakespeare.
This article was so disturbing that I would have scoured the internet for hours, had others not already done so. The actual proposal is to simply add non-fiction selections to certain subjects. Shakespeare is still on the list, as is To Kill a Mockingbird. The Recommended Levels of Insulation which is on the list is not recommended for English class, but rather, as a text for reading in SCIENCE classes (and that 70% non-fiction is arrived at by taking history, social studies, science and math time and aggregating them with English class ... well, no shit 70% of the reading will be non-fiction; I'd be pretty pissed off if it were lower). Anyone who would like to see the actual complete suggestions will find that the selections aren't much different from what they were. As for The Catcher in the Rye, it's probably one of the most overrated books out there, and I couldn't care less if it's not in the suggested core anymore.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9729383/Catcher-in-the-Rye-dropped-from-US-school-curriculum.html
The article states:
American literature classics are to be replaced by insulation manuals and plant inventories in US classrooms by 2014.
A new school curriculum which will affect 46 out of 50 states will make it compulsory for at least 70 per cent of books studied to be non-fiction, in an effort to ready pupils for the workplace.
Books such as JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird will be replaced by "informational texts" approved by the Common Core State Standards.
Suggested non-fiction texts include Recommended Levels of Insulation by the the US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Invasive Plant Inventory, by California's Invasive Plant Council.
The new educational standards have the backing of the influential National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, and are being part-funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Jamie Highfill, a teacher at Woodland Junior High School in Arkansas, told the Times that the directive was bad for a well-rounded education.
"I'm afraid we are taking out all imaginative reading and creativity in our English classes.
"In the end, education has to be about more than simply ensuring that kids can get a job. Isn't it supposed to be about making well-rounded citizens?"
Supporters of the directive argue that it will help pupils to develop the ability to write concisely and factually, which will be more useful in the workplace than a knowledge of Shakespeare.
This article was so disturbing that I would have scoured the internet for hours, had others not already done so. The actual proposal is to simply add non-fiction selections to certain subjects. Shakespeare is still on the list, as is To Kill a Mockingbird. The Recommended Levels of Insulation which is on the list is not recommended for English class, but rather, as a text for reading in SCIENCE classes (and that 70% non-fiction is arrived at by taking history, social studies, science and math time and aggregating them with English class ... well, no shit 70% of the reading will be non-fiction; I'd be pretty pissed off if it were lower). Anyone who would like to see the actual complete suggestions will find that the selections aren't much different from what they were. As for The Catcher in the Rye, it's probably one of the most overrated books out there, and I couldn't care less if it's not in the suggested core anymore.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Highly misleading Telegraph article claims US schools will drop fiction reading.
- 08/12/2012 06:21:03 PM
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