English Should not be Compulsory in High School

[Roger Ramjets]

Interestingly, 10 years after the book was published, the scenarios played out in real life. Unlike the Golding story, the six boys worked together and managed to thrive for 15 months stranded on a remote Tongan island before they were rescued.

This observation is important because it shows what should be immediately obvious upon reading the book, it's not a 'light read' about some children marooned on a deserted Island. If the title wasn't a big enough clue...

I don't know about "hidden themes" in "Lord of the Flies" but some stuff is right there on the surface, like, humans can be pretty ****** to each other.

That's not what it's really about either.

Lord of the Flies

a central theme is how the desire for civilization conflicts with the desire for power. Lord of the Flies also portrays the tension between groupthink and individuality, between rational and emotional reactions, and between morality and immorality

These themes are not hidden. This should make it an ideal book to be studied in class. However in my recollection the book was simply thrown at us and we had to figure it out for ourselves without any actual teaching. If I had to pay for that quality of education I'd have demanded my money back on the first day.

 

[dudalb]

God, please don't make the younger people even more unable to communicate with adults.

Too many kids write like they were texting all the time.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Too many kids write like they were texting all the time.

Manglish.

 

[Helen]

Ah yes, kids these days, am I right? You'll be happy to hear that even Socrates agreed with you about the younger generation.

 

[zooterkin]

Ah yes, kids these days, am I right? You'll be happy to hear that even Socrates agreed with you about the younger generation.

Well, that's what comes from not being taught English in school.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Too many kids write like they were texting all the time.

They're still communicating. Even "after a fashion" is more than I hoped for when I was a T/A at Purdue.

 

[Reformed Offlian]

ETA: Just went and found the text for the play, I can't still remember my lines - I remember only about half of them, there's a whole section that I'd forgotten.

Were they next to your keys?

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"A few years ago" I helped shepherd a few dozen large boxes of books to Africa for use in schools there. C5A Galaxy cargo plane carried me and two teachers taking a year without pay to increase literacy there in the Subsaharan and Equtorial regions. The local people had enlarged the jungle runway as best they could but the pilot pointed out that the plane's wheels were mere feet above the ground. I still remember the scream from the engines as the pilot fought the plane down. I was muttering the only prayer I knew at the time. Goes like this:

"Hail Mary, full of grace,
Get me the ◊◊◊◊ out of
This hellish place."

I made the mistake of looking out the cargo bay window. The tops of the trees were already above the top of the plane. Seconds later the engines went nuts. Then we were stopped. Except me, I was still vibrating.

To make a long story short (enthusiastic cheers from the crowd!) I was met on board the plane, a local calling out my name. We linked with the rest of her team and when the truck caravan came we help load them, ten flatbed trucks' worth of book in this load.

They were starving for English language books for teaching and for practice. We went directly to a group of trucks, obvious rough-country vehicles and took off for the boonies.

The cheers when we got to the school that had dibs on this load was very much worth the trip. I was much in demand because their pumps were getting old, their generators were getting old, and the need was very very old.

Third trip for me, was two years later and people were still cheering, but in English a lot more now.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

BTW, the above-mentioned books would have been burned if nobody had wanted them. College level books. That may have been the problem.

 

[Thermal]

...I was met on board the plane, a local calling out my name...

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

This is the reason I ate Tokyo.

Whatever "this" is.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

I had a birthday party in Yokohoma once. Just once. But the fun part there was teaching Japanese to say American words. They would get into fights over how to pronounce an English word. This would usually start about the time an American bar would call in an Arclight raid.

 

[malbui]

Lord of the Flies: we were forced to read it at school because Golding had taught there for a while and the school authorities were hugely proud of that.

I hated every ghastly word of it.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

You should visit the Kamakura District near Tokyo. The Dai Butsu is worth the trip.

 

[The Atheist]

Lord of the Flies: we were forced to read it at school because Golding had taught there for a while and the school authorities were hugely proud of that.

I hated every ghastly word of it.

You're not supposed to like it, it's one of the worst horror stories ever written.

Understanding it is the issue, which is why it's crazy to give it to young teens.

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

HAI! Or BANZAI!

 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Not for nothing, but some rando screaming "Gawdzilla Sama!" would pretty much put me on red alert.

But sweetie, you meet the most ... interesting ... people at the airport. And they don't do that annoying "hanging around" after!

 

[Minoosh]

As a certified English teacher in grades 6-12 (puberty through legal adulthood, basically), it frustrates me that teaching writing is so often welded to whatever book they're reading for English class. Some thrive on that format but a lot don't. (I have not BTW ever worked as an English teacher ... it's a credential I got when I saw where newspapers were going.)

Once, as a special-education aide, I was authorized to modify an assignment for a SPED student: Instead of an essay about "Catcher in the Rye," I said he could write about "Why we need more skate parks here" - as if presenting to the local authority. We used the "hamburger" format: Bun on top and bottom; meat (triple patty) in the middle. He showed some animation, unusual for him, in his sheer relief at not having to wrestle something out of "Catcher in the Rye."

This clip is fairly illustrative of what it can be like to teach:

 

[dudalb]

Once, as a special-education aide, I was authorized to modify an assignment for a SPED student: Instead of an essay about "Catcher in the Rye," I said he could write about "Why we need more skate parks here" - as if presenting to the local authority. We used the "hamburger" format: Bun on top and bottom; meat (triple patty) in the middle. He showed some animation, unusual for him, in his sheer relief at not having to wrestle something out of "Catcher in the Rye."

This clip is fairly illustrative of what it can be like to teach:

I am not a teacher, but I think one major problem with US education is too much catering to the students whims.
I don't see what is so bad about tellling them flat out You don't pass this class, you don't graduate.
Yeah, I am a reactionary when it comes to education. I think Progressive Education has been very damaging. TO learn something requires Work, and you cannot sugar coat it.
I also think there are too many electives and not enough mandatory courses. I would require Math , History and English EVERY YEAR through High school.

 

[The Atheist]

...English EVERY YEAR through High school.

Utterly pointless, and would be designed to turn kids off.

Lessons teaching usage have long gone by year/grade 11, so kids are given books to read, plays to discuss and poetry to vomit over.

It's a lot smarter to let kids learn something they're interested in.