High School Parents: What are Your Kids Reading in English Class? (teenage, babies)
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Originally Posted by YorktownGal;64430626[COLOR="Red"
Orphaned[/color]
This is the stated goal of my daughter’s English class:
“Equity in English:
We will work to create an educational environment in which all students and staff understand and respect the racial and cultural diversity and interdependence of members of our society. This is accomplished through affirming the culture, history, and contributions of all people, challenging and eliminating racism, prejudice, bigotry, discrimination and stereotyping based on race, valuing multiple cultural perspectives, and providing all students with opportunities to “see themselves” in the educational environment in positive ways and on a continuing basis.”
Her class is not about literature, writing, reading, grammar, the history of novels, poetry or plays, but about CRT and intersectionality and all the current buzzwords.
She had a choice of 3 books for her latest reading assignment:
“Where the Crawdads Sing”
“Bear Town”
And a book about gender fluidity/identity (I don’t know the title).
She already saw the “Crawdads” movie and was not interested in the gender book. “Bear Town” was described as being about small town hockey. She thought that was the least bad choice.
I skimmed “Bear Town” this afternoon, and it is only superficially about hockey. It’s really about rape. And suicide, and drugs, and being in the closet, etc. The book is littered with words that I cannot type here. At one point a character asks his dad, “How do you know if you have a good looking c*%^?” The purported theme of the book is “toxic masculinity.”
“Crawdads” isn’t much better as there is an attempted rape.
My daughter hasn’t even had her first kiss yet and here she is having to read about rape in English class.
I know that the world she is growing up in is not the same as the 1980s and 1990s. But is it too much to ask for some Shakespeare? Austen? Dickens? Fitzgerald? Edgar Allen Poe? Mark Twain?
If we can’t have our kids read the classics, is it too much to ask to have assigned books that don’t contain graphic sex and foul language?
On the surface, I agree with you and I also wish that the teacher had given the students a more extensive list of books from which to choose for this reading assignment.
However, having read both of the two books that you listed, they're both excellent books despite the language and the difficult subject matter of the latter. I wouldn't call the theme of Bear Town to be toxic masculinity. The novel is far more nuanced than that. It's about small-town social dynamics, the haves and the have-nots, the power that is bestowed upon those with athletic prowess, the role of adults in children's/teen sports, and what happens when that power structure that is formed when small town big-wigs and star athleticism meet is threatened. The novel is a few years old and is written by a Swede (I think), but the topics discussed are still quite relevant. There are shades of what happened with the football team in Steubenville, Ohio and the Brock Turner case that make this an appropriate read for a mature young adult.
That being said, it's a book that I'd want to read alongside my child so that we could talk about it openly.
So far as the classics are concerned, at the heart of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are an accusation of rape, a narrowly thwarted attempt at a lynching of the black man accused of rape, domestic violence, and a murder done in self-defense that is covered up by the local police. Shakespeare is rife with bawdy sexual references, although a lot of schools have moved to abridged texts that eliminate those lines. Still, a double suicide at the end of a play (Romeo and Juliet) or a man killing his wife while crazed with jealousy (Othello) or a man taking fatal revenge on a friend because said friend "dissed" him (Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado") are no less shocking than what a teen will read in "Where the Crawdads Sing" or "Bear Town."
Last edited by Formerly Known As Twenty; 11-10-2022 at 02:56 PM..
On the surface, I agree with you and I also wish that the teacher had given the students a more extensive list of books from which to choose for this reading assignment.
However, having read both of the two books that you listed, they're both excellent books despite the language and the difficult subject matter of the latter. I wouldn't call the theme of Bear Town to be toxic masculinity. The novel is far more nuanced than that. It's about small-town social dynamics, the haves and the have-nots, the power that is bestowed upon those with athletic prowess, the role of adults in children's/teen sports, and what happens when that power structure that is formed when small town big-wigs and star athleticism meet is threatened. The novel is a few years old and is written by a Swede (I think), but the topics discussed are still quite relevant. There are shades of what happened with the football team in Steubenville, Ohio and the Brock Turner case that make this an appropriate read for a mature young adult.
That being said, it's a book that I'd want to read alongside my child so that we could talk about it openly.
So far as the classics are concerned, at the heart of "To Kill a Mockingbird" are an accusation of rape, a narrowly thwarted attempt at a lynching of the black man accused of rape, domestic violence, and a murder done in self-defense that is covered up by the local police. Shakespeare is rife with bawdy sexual references, although a lot of schools have moved to abridged texts that eliminate those lines. Still, a double suicide at the end of a play (Romeo and Juliet) or a man killing his wife while crazed with jealousy (Othello) or a man taking fatal revenge on a friend because said friend "dissed" him (Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado") are no less shocking than what a teen will read in "Where the Crawdads Sing" or "Bear Town."
I appreciate your perspective. However, “toxic masculinity” is definitely central to the arc of the book; this says it better than I can:
Quote:
hockey in Beartown becomes the seed-bed for a toxic culture that leads to a reprehensible act of rape. However, as a character points out in the book, it is not hockey that is to blame. Rape is the fault of the rapist, always. However, the book does discuss how the air of toxic masculinity and sexism around a sport can make the people around it blind to the faults of “boys who will be boys.”
I question it’s suitability for unguided reading in 10th grade. When researching the book, I learned that it was chosen for the 2018 freshman class of Tulane University to read and discuss. There is undoubtedly a difference between the maturity level of 15/16 year olds and 18/19 year olds. The discussions were also led by the college faculty. The students weren’t left to discuss it in their own little groups as my daughter is doing.
And I think it has to be said, since you brought up the example of the Ohio school, that there are other examples such as the Duke University lacrosse case.
I wish as well that an accurate description of the book had been provided so that my daughter could have made a more informed decision.
As far as Shakespeare goes, we were taught about the history of tragedies, comedies, and histories, and why they were written the way they were. Nobody was reading Shakespeare in order to change student’s minds about anything.
I say it again. Sexual activity of teenagers have nothing to do with rape. I now know that you do not understand that rape has nothing to do with sex. I feel even more strongly that you should read the book.
What?! In whose world? Who's the sheltered one here? There have been cases of pre-teen rape, let alone teen rape. What point were you trying to make again?!
As far as Shakespeare goes, we were taught about the history of tragedies, comedies, and histories, and why they were written the way they were. Nobody was reading Shakespeare in order to change student’s minds about anything.
That actually sounds interesting. It would help put Shakespeare into perspective. My school didn't offer anything like that. Are you talking about a HS class, or college?
That actually sounds interesting. It would help put Shakespeare into perspective. My school didn't offer anything like that. Are you talking about a HS class, or college?
AP composition and AP literature, junior and senior years of high school.
Excellent post; can’t rep you again. The bolded part is especially relevant.
My son who is 4 years ahead and went to high school in TX read “The Great Gatsby”, “The Call of the Wild”, several Shakespeare plays, Oscar Wilde, etc. The only contemporary books he read were “Unbroken” and “Ender’s Game.”
“Unbroken” is intense but the message of redemption is incredible.
Beyond having undergraduate and two graduate degrees in English literature, I taught college English for years. I am not ignorant of the great works of literature, but thanks for assuming.
Many great books are about overcoming horrible circumstances, but do so in a way that ultimately demonstrates the beauty of our fallen world and the resilience of the human spirit.
Adult themes are one thing. Crudeness for the sake of crudeness is another. What literary or educational merit is there in a character asking about the way his “c—-“ looks? How does this enrich my daughter? Does it make her more compassionate, more humane, kinder? No, it is simply there for shock appeal.
"Did you think I mean country matters?" (emphasis on the c---)
"Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie."
Shock appeal isn't something invented by modern literature. I'm surprised to be pointing this out to such a well-read person.
Quote:
I further object to the way the author described self-harm in the book. He suggested that self-harm is emotionally helpful. It is not; it is a a gateway to suicide, which he also idealized in the book.
Furthermore, if young people decide that they want to read this on their own time, fine. I don’t care what other people read. But it is not appropriate to be assigned in school.
Completely disagree, and--by what you initially wrote--your characterization is false. The author described a fictional character believing that the only way they can deal with their emotions was through self-harm. That is not an endorsement of self harm. It is an accurate depiction of the thought process of mental illness. Rather than lead a young person to try self-harm and suicide, it is more likely to make a reader--who is already dealing with those same issues--recognize that they too are having similar thoughts and realize that they should seek help from mental health professionals. For those without such ideation, it gives insight as to why someone would self-harm.
What would be inappropriate would be a class discussion about how self-harm and suicide is a healthy way to deal with emotional distress. I'd say it's a pretty good bet that is not happening in your daughter's class.
Quote:
They read parts of The Odyssey in 9th grade. That’s it.
Well, that's truly classical literature. None of the older modern classics? That's a shame.
Completely disagree, and--by what you initially wrote--your characterization is false. The author described a fictional character believing that the only way they can deal with their emotions was through self-harm. That is not an endorsement of self harm. It is an accurate depiction of the thought process of mental illness. Rather than lead a young person to try self-harm and suicide, it is more likely to make a reader--who is already dealing with those same issues--recognize that they too are having similar thoughts and realize that they should seek help from mental health professionals. For those without such ideation, it gives insight as to why someone would self-harm.
How was my characterization false?
I wrote: “I further object to the way the author described self-harm in the book. He suggested that self-harm is emotionally helpful.”
The character in question says he does not cut, but that he could understand cutting, because releasing all the emotions by cutting is tempting. He then describes imagining purposely getting beat up to dull his emotional pain. At another point in the book, he intentionally inflicts physical pain on himself to distract himself from a possible homosexual encounter.
Quote:
What would be inappropriate would be a class discussion about how self-harm and suicide is a healthy way to deal with emotional distress. I'd say it's a pretty good bet that is not happening in your daughter's class.
Discussions on this topic could certainly get dicey. Do you think kids who self-harm are going to speak out about it class?
Last edited by calgirlinnc; 11-10-2022 at 06:11 PM..
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