[tomwed]

1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Lord of the Flies, Old Man and the Sea, A Tale of Two Cites, Beowulf, Shakespeare [a different play each year], PT 109,

The only book I can remember that is on a modern list is Nickel and Dimed.

[I'm hoping Tal can help me out on this subject]

[dbussone]

We read many of The Great Books. Some were in their original languages, including Latin. I doubt there are any of these on current reading lists.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by dbussone

We read many of The Great Books. Some were in their original languages, including Latin. I doubt there are any of these on current reading lists.

Where did yo go to school?

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by dbussone

We read many of The Great Books. Some were in their original languages, including Latin. I doubt there are any of these on current reading lists.

Well I am somewhat incorrect. Not many of the Greek or Latin Classics. Here is the Prentice Hall recommended list for 9-12 :

Pearson Prentice Hall: Suggested Reading for High School

Great question Tomwed.

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by tomwed

Where did yo go to school?

St John's Prep in MA.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by dbussone

St John's Prep in MA.

I've read many of those too. Hudson Catholic Jersey City
Did you have Xaverian Brothers? We had Christian Brothers.

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by tomwed

I've read many of those too. Hudson Catholic Jersey City
Did you have Xaverian Brothers? We had Christian Brothers.

We did. And one of my uncles was a Xaverian Brother.

[dbussone]

I 'd love to hear from Tal I bet he would enjoy this thread.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by dbussone

We did. And one of my uncles was a Xaverian Brother.

Did you call him Uncle Brother? I have a friend down here who's brothe is a Father and sister is a Sister.
I'm hoping Tal jumps in too. I'll bet he's looking up reading lists from the 60's and 70's as we type

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by tomwed

Did you call him Uncle Brother? I have a friend down here who's brothe is a Father and sister is a Sister.
I'm hoping Tal jumps in too. I'll bet he's looking up reading lists from the 60's and 70's as we type

Nope. He was Uncle Louie in private and Brother Dunstan in public.

[tomwed]

I had to call my great uncle, Father Frye all the time. He would scare the children in grammar school. I remember telling my grandmother about him when I was little. She said we used to call him Fat Little Andy. I kept that secret to myself.

[Carl in Tampa]

High School reading included:

Dickens - Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and others
Eliot - Silas Marner
Shakespeare - McBeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Various Sonnets
de Maupassant - Many short stories

Freshman College included:

Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales, and others
Anonymous - Beowulf
Orwell - 1984, Animal Farm
Shakespeare - Many Plays, some Sonnets
Huxley - Brave New World
Wolfe - Look Homeward Angel, Of Time and The River
Dante - The Inferno
Selected writings of over a dozen other authors

Orwell was a genius. In 1948 he identified social and political trends that are becoming our way of life before our eyes. Thought Police, Double Speak, and rewriting of history is going on daily.

I don't have a clue what kids read in high school today, but I'm confident that it isn't what I read.

Alas...........

[jojo]

Our granddaughter's summer reading list going into seventh grade included Beowulf. I too read that in college. I was astounded at the required list.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Carl in Tampa

High School reading included:

Dickens - Tale of Two Cities, A Christmas Carol, and others
Eliot - Silas Marner
Shakespeare - McBeth, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Various Sonnets
de Maupassant - Many short stories

Freshman College included:

Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales, and others
Anonymous - Beowulf
Orwell - 1984, Animal Farm
Shakespeare - Many Plays, some Sonnets
Huxley - Brave New World
Wolfe - Look Homeward Angel, Of Time and The River
Dante - The Inferno
Selected writings of over a dozen other authors

Orwell was a genius. In 1948 he identified social and political trends that are becoming our way of life before our eyes. Thought Police, Double Speak, and rewriting of history is going on daily.

I don't have a clue what kids read in high school today, but I'm confident that it isn't what I read.

Alas...........

Doublespeak is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs, "servicing the target" for bombing[1]), in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth. Doublespeak is most closely associated with political language

that's true

The Thought Police (thinkpol in Newspeak) are the secret police of the fictional superstate, Oceania, in George Orwell's 1949 dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell's Thought Police are charged with uncovering and punishing "thoughtcrime" and thought-criminals. They use psychological methods and omnipresent surveillance (such as telescreens) to search, find, monitor, and arrest members of society who could potentially challenge authority and the status quo—even if only by thought—hence the name Thought Police.[1] They use terror and torture to achieve their ends.

i'm not as sure as you are that this exists

rewriting of history
can you give me a modern day example?

[Boomer]

I taught 1984 several times, including in 1984.

There was nothing special about Orwell's choice of the year. According to standard sources, Orwell wrote most of the book in 1948 and they wanted to give it a short title so the numbers were simply flipped.

It was not difficult to control the Proles. They were saturated with violent movies in order to desensitize them to violence -- domestic and global.

There were fake lotteries -- well, once in a while somebody real would win a small amount. The lotteries helped to distract the Proles with some kind of pathetic hope.

And there was gin.....The protagonist Winston Smith swallows that gin "like a dose of medicine." -- The gin was said to give the sensation of being "hit on the back of the head with a rubber club." Winston drank that easy-to-come-by gin to make his world "look more cheerful."

Always, when we finished a book, the final assignment was an essay. For 1984, the students were to look around their current world and compare what they saw in reality to what they saw in Orwell's fiction.

That was a long time ago. I have wondered what it would be like to teach 1984 now.....and to assign that essay.......shiver....shudder.....

I just remembered the bulletin board I made for my classroom when we read 1984. In big, scary letters, it said, "What is in your Room 101?" -- I was sure glad that did not happen to be my classroom number.

.........And then there was that other book......the one where everybody was addicted to big screens and could not think for themselves.........

Dystopia happens?

- - - - - - - - -

PS: I was not off topic -- in case the topic police are present. That was about required HS reading.

Boomer the Requirer