Why I loved books but hated high school lit class

[kestrell]

I was just looking at the list of books for the "Battle of the Books" literacy event
http://www.battleofthebooks.org/book-list/9th-12th-grades-2012.php
and I remembered why I hated high school lit class.

If you are a) an animal b) female or c) disabled, you are probably going to either die young or have a life of one misery after another.

Other high school favorites:
"A Rose for Miss Emily"
The female doesn't die young or suffer tragically but she is a homicidal maniac who kills her lover.
_Of Mice and Men_
The disabled guy is shot by his best friend after a married woman tries to seduce him and then claims to have been attacked.
"Double Indemnity"
A woman plots with her lover to kill her husband so she can collect on the husband's life insurance and then double-crosses the lover.
"Romeo and Juliet"
Okay, Juliet gets to have sex but dies young because the men in her life insist that they have a foolproof plan. Okay, at least that one taught me a valuable life lesson: never accept drinks from a guy who insists that what's in it can't hurt you.

I won't even get into Dickens and his born-to-be-passively-victimized orphans and born-to-die girls and women.

Way to present positive stories about women.
This is why I occasionally say I'm illiterate but I read a lot.

Comments

[rinue]

I was fairly outraged we had to read The Scarlet Letter and Othello; I can't imagine what high school student would be able to relate to those stories, and they punish women extensively for basically no reason.

But my most hated story on that list is "The Pearl." I love Steinbeck, but that story, despite its good intentions and reasonable observation that people who start out poor tend to be screwed no matter what, is a piece of hackwork assigned less for its insight than because it's shorter than real books.

[kestrell]

Thank you for mentioning _The Scarlet Letter_--I had meant to mention that one but forgot. Oh, and the Kate Chopin short story about the woman who commits suicide, and _The Great Gatsby_, where the title character is basically emotionally destroyed by a spoiled princess.

[jesse_the_k]

My hs read "A Separate Peace," which I remember as v homoerotic (in a repressed WASP fashion) but otherwise it was about an 18 yr old who didn't serve in WWII. In 10th grade we got to themed classes: my fave was Variations on Hell, which included Gilgamesh, Dante's Purgatory and Giles Goat Boy. (50% grads we t to I y league schools; I spoiled the numbers.)

Shall we cook up a tenth grade reading list where the moral is "here is how to read to learn & entertain"?

[kestrell]

Cooking up our dream high school reading list--what a fabulous idea!

Let me ponder and I will get back to you.