Any opinions on these books from my son's Catholic high school English class?

[Augustinian]

If you really wanted kids to read something challenging, shocking, and full of discussion material about racism, power, etc., you would assign an adult book about the life of St. Josephine Bakhita. Takes care of your nonfiction book for the year, and it certainly would expand minds.

The purpose of English classes is to introduce the great authors of English language literature. A biography of Bakhita could be useful for a religion class or a history class, but for English, classic works like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or Longfellow’s translation of the Divine Comedy could provide cross education between English and religion.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

Well, if you yourself are a “reader”, then you just like to read so it’s normal for you.

The dad who posted this thread is noting that he has limited time to read and therefore I got the impression there’s a bit of a burden involved in him having to read a whole bunch of books that his son might be assigned. My own mother was not a “reader” and it took her literally years to finish even one book, so she certainly wasn’t reading my school assigned books. My father did like to read but he had very definite tastes and was likely to be reading some economics book or something about Native American history, and certainly wasn’t going to plop down with some novel on race relations or an essay on how to write books.

 

[JulianN]

Agreed. But I assume your dad wouldn’t have just derided the books he hadn’t read as not being of value. For me, that’s the issue—the books are being dismissed without any real engagement.

 

[mrsdizzyd]

So, as I said, a parent should be prepared to supplement their child’s education.

This is what happens to education when bureaucrats demand more and more data driven education and focus on “21st Century Skills”. It’s a wonder we all survived and learned anything before No Child Left Behind came along. It’s not just a public school issue.

 

[Alex337]

Frankly, this school’s English class sounds pretty worthless, other than maybe the King book. Lord of the Flies is junior high stuff (and you live Lord of the Flies in junior high, heh), so why are they reading it in high school? The others are forgettable modern books with tons of problems and no Catholic values, so they seem like a waste of space or worse. Bleh.

Lord of the Flies can be read and understood on a basic level by younger children but can be studied in greater depth and with criticism by older students. It’s a good text to have students of that age bracket test their grasp on and attempt a critical analysis with reference to the author’s influences. Essentially it’s a good book to do a deeper reading at this age level because it’s open to good discussion and criticism on the author’s point.

Now, you notice that “contemporary lit” here does not include, say, romance novels, mysteries, science fiction, or fantasy. So basically, they are giving courses in the kind of fiction that mostly isn’t read, and making the taxpayer foot the bill. Of course this amounts to a local government subsidy for writers who can’t entertain anyone. I would say it’s a matter of “eat your broccoli,” but broccoli is tasty and nutritious.

The Secret Life of Bees is a bestseller and a coming of age story, quite a popular genre. It didn’t seem to need help in forcing people to read it. Lord of the Flies is survivalist fiction, also very popular. I would personally like to see more fantasy or scifi on the list too, but not every course has every genre.

 

[Alex337]

At the lowest level, any teacher assigning a book or even considering assigning books gets free or super-cheap copies of the book, directly from the publisher (“desk copies” are free, while “examination copies” are cheap). So of course this encourages teachers to pick books that they personally like, rather than thinking about what students will like. If you like contemporary lit, over time you can get a nice little library for yourself for practically free.

Admittedly I’ve only taught in Aus and the UK but we were never given free books. Teachers I know in the US haven’t mentioned that either. When I designed a course I’d try for a selection of books that the school either already had or that I could buy cheaply at a second hand retailer.

 

[Bradskii]

There’s a difference between reading books that talk about bad situations, and reading books that advocate and indoctrinate doing evil things, such as abortion or euthanasia.

Reading a book that advocates bad behavior in a sophistical and winning way is an activity for sociologists, not high school kids. Being surrounded by other students and teachers who agree with the book is a recipe for peer pressure, but more often, for just being persuaded. If your parents don’t argue against it, they must agree too!

Advocate and indoctrinate? Good grief. Apart from ‘on writing’, the books mentioned are all about the human condition. There is nothing in any of them that could be construed as advocating anything. And certainly nothing that could be remotely confused with indoctrination.

The closest you might come anywhere near that is King advocating moderation in drinking in his book.

Don’t forget that these are novels. They must have light and darkness. There must be shades of morality. There must be conflict. We all gave up Dick and Jane books in primary school. Teenagers need to discuss the darker and more confusing and controversial elements of life and novels are a good way to introduce them. They won’t be reading them in isolation. They will need the discuss the characters and themes in a meaningful way and form opinions on them.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It’s these kinds of debates that made me as a young person decide to (a) just go read whatever I want but (b) be sure to major in math or science in college.

Nobody ever gets all wound up over the political correctness of the answer to an equation. Nobody’s dad ever reviewed his math homework looking for distressing hints of feminism.

 

[jeannetherese]

There is nothing in any of them that could be construed as advocating anything.

Authors choose which viewpoints to present and which to omit. Books are written from a point of view and points of view may be endorsed/promoted through the writing.
Teachers and parents may want to help students determine the point of view represented in a book to better understand and critique the viewpoint and the book.

 

[Lea101]

Nobody’s dad ever reviewed his math homework looking for distressing hints of feminism.

In this climate, I won’t be surprised. ‘Mary had $7.50 less than Tom? THE PAY GAP ISNT REEEAAL’

Anyway that part was confusing to me. From my knowledge, older books with hints of feminism usually meant hints of egalitarianism, which I don’t think it’s wrong at all. Unless these books are somehow promoting abortion or something?

I enjoy reading social commentary though. I loved literature a lot. I think it’s great to read about different views. Teenagers are quite dumb nowadays, speaking as someone who recently stopped being one, hahaha.

 

[TheLittleLady]

The Steven King book is a text on how to write fiction, I believe.

Exactly, I find it sort of odd to be thrown in with fiction works.

His “Dance Macabre” is another excellent non-fiction work on the genre of horror.

 

[TheLittleLady]

I read it when it first came out, found it to be a good book (my favorite Kingsolver is “The Poisonwood Bible”)

 

[TheLittleLady]

The dad who posted this thread is noting that he has limited time to read

@Paul71

You may check with your local public library. Mine has several free services that allow me to check out audio books on my phone, tablet, etc. If you don’t have time to sit and read, you can listen to the books on your commute, when you work out, etc.

Libraries also offer books on CD.

And the online library options offer books for Kindle. Kindle readers have a “text to speech” option.

There are many ways for busy people to read books today

 

[F_Marturana]

It’s probably required for the writing part of English class.

My son had a number of essays for his state English test.

I’d be interested in reading it.

 

[Irishmom2]

Great. The parishioners are footing the bill and paying the tuition! Yayyyyyy.

Really, that happens where you live? Because where I live we paid 100% of the bill for our 3 children to attend Catholic school, even when the elementary school was a parish school.

 

[pnewton]

I’m sorry, Paul, but if you are going to decide what your son can and cannot read, whether you empasise literary value or not, that is censorship.

I would call it parenting. I do not see these books as problematic for High School level though. Still, it is parental oversight that keeps schools honest.

They must have light and darkness. There must be shades of morality.

Interestingly enough, the greatest literary work of the last Century (Lord of the Rings) flies in the face of that convention, drawing clear lines as to what is right and what is wrong. I understand your point, and there is some value in studying flawed characters in literature. Even Scripture, read as literature has the flawed characters of Moses, Abraham and David.

But the greatest story told is not one of a flawed character, but a perfect man. Ironic, I think.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I’m sure they are good books in the sense of well-crafted writing, telling a story etc.
Just not to my taste.
I read very little new fiction for about the past 20 or 25 years. When I do read fiction I’m more likely to pick up a bestseller from a long-ago era because I get a sense of how people thought/ went about their lives in the past and I find that more interesting than somebody’s take on current events issues.

 

[JulianN]

greatest literary work of the last Century (Lord of the Rings) fli

No. Just no.

 

[midori]

The Bean Trees and The Secret Life of Bees-- haven’t read either of them, but they’re pretty standard books for high school summer reading lists in my area.

I read “The Lord of the Flies” when I was in high school. Someone picked up a batch of books at a garage sale, and it happened to be included. It was a famous book, and I was on a stranded-on-a-desert-island kick, so I read it. There were a few parts that stuck out in my memory enough to remember even now, like the pig-killing scene. It wasn’t something I’d read multiple times for fun— I’m not so big on kids-going-feral, let alone kids-killing-other-kids. I personally prefer mysteries, where if someone offs someone else, justice gets dished out at the end. But I can see how it would be a book to read if you wanted to discuss human nature, emotional vs logical reactions, mob mentality/groupthink, rules and order, fear and power and responsibility, identity, ignorance and knowledge and ritual, the meaning of maturity/adulthood/civilization, and so on.

 

[midori]

I read Nickel and Dimed for fun about 15 years ago. The premise is that a journalist goes undercover in a variety of states to work for entry-level wages and live a poverty-level lifestyle. Because-- which I don’t recall her ever pointing out-- minimum wage jobs are intended to be starter jobs, not the kind of jobs that you make a career out of and try to raise a family on. Minimum wage =/= living wage, and never has. So she tries working as a waitress, as a hotel maid, for Wal-mart, and so on. She lives in a cheap motel, in trailer parks, wherever. Points to her for being able to leave her familiar surroundings, because she obviously never experienced this lifestyle as a child, or on her own way up the ladder.

But ultimately, she’s an affluent woman who has savings in the bank and can afford to run off for a few months and go work at these sorts of jobs in various states for the sake of journalism… but she never actually worked any of those jobs when she was in high school, or college, or a young adult just starting out. She’s spent her entire life in the upper middle class, and she has no idea how to survive as someone who’s two, three, four, five economic strata below her own. She brings her upper-middle-class preconceived notions into a totally different ecosystem, and is always an outsider and a tourist, no matter what her intentions were. Yes, the jobs are totally mentally and physically challenging! But ultimately, she never spent much time doing anything specific, just hopping around and sampling this job here, and that job there. Rather than doing what responsible adults do, which is powering through whatever unpleasantness is afoot, and sticking with it, and growing, because you do what needs to be done, not because it’s what you want to do.

If she had taken a year and had worked at, say, Waffle House, and written about the experience-- the coworkers, the people she met, the difficulties of running a household on her wages, and so on-- that would be cool. But this is more like someone who ran off to go play “minimum wage employee” for a bit, then runs back home to recuperate, then runs off to go play “minimum wage employee” again somewhere else, and then goes back home to enjoy normalcy before getting the oomph up for the next bit. Her slice-of-life isn’t so slice-of-life; the people she encounters aren’t well-developed or stuck with for any amount of time; she’s a bit flippant/dismissive towards people who actually live that life. And in this kind of writing, a good journalist will step back and let the reader be able to project themselves into a situation, without inserting herself and her opinions everywhere, but the author is always in the foreground.

It’s not a bad book to read. It might be eye-opening for people who don’t have anything to compare their own lives to. The premise was good, but it would have been a vastly better book if a humbler person had written it.