peppermintvalet t1_ityf6e7 wrote
English class in high school isn't about reading books you're personally interested in, it's about using books as teaching tools to learn about literature, themes, symbolism, parts of a novel, etc, at a more slightly more advanced level.
impossiblevoyage t1_itym9qz wrote
As someone who understands that now, I do wish that had been made clear at the time. English lessons just felt like the teacher was somehow unable to get the class excited by a book which only their interpretations applied to, and which was entirely removed from its context.
NunsNunchuck t1_itzaiz9 wrote
Which is why lots of kids hate reading. I never enjoyed reading until after graduating. My personal philosophy to get someone to read is find a movie that a kid likes that is based on a book and give them the book.
impossiblevoyage t1_itzaq0e wrote
Idk I loved reading, I just liked the freedom of reading on my own terms rather than just what the teacher told us was 'the right way'. When we studied Latin literature, we were encouraged to come up with our own ideas, which made it interesting even if the text itself wasn't something we would normally choose to read.
bigwilly311 t1_iufroik wrote
Yes, this is true, but students won’t read it if they aren’t interested in it, and there are plenty of other books from the time that teach those things and are also interesting to teenagers. I read something different to culminate my American Lit class, but I offer students Gatsby as extra credit so when they get to college they aren’t the only dipshit who didn’t read it in HS like I was.
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