[rubicon]

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...........

Ditto In addition The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock ,The Jilting of Granny Weatherall , Moby Dick, Red Badge of Courage

As to what kids read today> They do not read the classics because it creates trigger warnings and micro-aggressions and because they are too busy learning about cultural diversity and gender studies. All the real important things that will guide them through life

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Boomer

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.....


Dystopia happens?

Boomer the Requirer

4 Predictions From Orwell

That written in 2013. Who knows, maybe the author was one of your students?

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by rubicon

Ditto In addition The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock ,The Jilting of Granny Weatherall , Moby Dick, Red Badge of Courage

As to what kids read today> They do not read the classics because it creates trigger warnings and micro-aggressions and because they are too busy learning about cultural diversity and gender studies. All the real important things that will guide them through life

The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock
That's new to me. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall ,also new to me
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
thank-you

[Taltarzac725]

http://www.edline.net/files/_ECLpS_/...g2015title.pdf

Here is one Summer Reading List from Texas for 2015.

I remember seeing these lists for Summer Reading when I volunteered at East Lake Community Library in Palm Harbor back in 2000-2003.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725

http://www.edline.net/files/_ECLpS_/...g2015title.pdf

Here is one Summer Reading List from Texas for 2015.

I remember seeing these lists for Summer Reading when I volunteered at East Lake Community Library in Palm Harbor back in 2000-2003.

Thank-you Tal
You know you're old when In Cold Blood and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is way too old to be considered modern fiction because it's classic. Tal don't do any research but do you know how long a book has to be around to be considered a classic. I think with cars it could be 20 years. I'm not sure.

[dbussone]

Originally Posted by tomwed

Thank-you Tal
You know you're old when In Cold Blood and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is way too old to be considered modern fiction because it's classic. Tal don't do any research but do you know how long a book has to be around to be considered a classic. I think with cars it could be 20 years. I'm not sure.

Tomwed - I think the majority of us here in TV could be considered classics based on years we've been around. Yes?

[Boomer]

Many classics also appear on that famous list of banned books. (I hope Tal will find that list and link it for us. It is probably somewhere on the ALA site. I am on my iPad and still have not learned to link.)

Books that appear on the list of banned books are most often books than can get readers to THINK..........

For instance, Huck Finn is about right and wrong and friendship and Huck's true moral compass. Huck believes he will go to hell for helping Jim, the runaway slave. But Huck helps Jim anyway, even though he believes he is facing eternal damnation.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gives the reader an opportunity to think about friendship and loyalty and questioning and soul-searching and decision-making and man's inhumanity to man and history and how character is revealed and a whole bunch of other stuff, but.......

Those self-righteous banners are always out to get Huck for that highly offensive word that is used repeatedly. Indeed, it is an offensive word, now, but in the 1800s it was just a part of the vernacular. When Huck uses the word in reference to his friend Jim, it is not a pejorative. The context of the word, of course, must clearly be addressed when introducing Huck to a class. In fact, such an intro can lead to excellent discussion about the power of words.

But I bet by now the banners have pretty much pounded Huck into high school English class history.

I wonder a lot about the true motivation of those so willing to ban Huck Finn......



PS: And nobody can write like Mark Twain. That man sure could turn a phrase.

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Many classics also appear on that famous list of banned books. (I hope Tal will find that list and link it for us. It is probably somewhere on the ALA site. I am on my iPad and still have not learned to link.)

Books that appear on the list of banned books are most often books than can get readers to THINK..........

For instance, Huck Finn is about right and wrong and friendship and Huck's true moral compass. Huck believes he will go to hell for helping Jim, the runaway slave. But Huck helps Jim anyway, even though he believes he is facing eternal damnation. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gives the reader an opportunity to think about friendship and loyalty and questioning and soul-searching and decision-making and man's inhumanity to man and history and a whole bunch of other stuff, but.......

Those self-righteous banners are always out to get Huck for that highly offensive word that is used repeatedly. Indeed, it is an offensive word, now, but in the 1800s it was just a part of the vernacular. When Huck uses the word in reference to his friend Jim, it is not a pejorative. The context of the word, of course, must clearly be addressed when introducing Huck to a class. In fact, such an intro can lead to excellent discussion about the power of words.

But I bet by now the banners have pretty much pounded Huck into high school English class history.

I wonder a lot about the true motivation of those so willing to ban Huck Finn......



PS: And nobody can write like Mark Twain. That man sure could turn a phrase.

You might find this link interesting. It looks like PBS agrees with you and wants to get the book back in the classroom, doesn't it? Are you sure it has been put in high school English history?

Culture Shock: Flashpoints: Literature: Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Huck Finn Teachers Guide

[jblum315]

We didn't have a reading list (private school) Everyone read one book at a time

[tomwed]

Originally Posted by jblum315

We didn't have a reading list (private school) Everyone read one book at a time

I have friend who teaches at the Princeton Day School.
Tuition for the 2015-16 Academic Year
Grades PreK-4 $27,280
Grades 5-6 $31,890
Grades 7-12 $33,430
The entire school read the same book over the summer plus other books too I suppose. One year they all read "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a book written by Barbara Ehrenreich. Written from her perspective as an undercover journalist, it sets out to investigate the impact of the 1996 welfare reform act on the working poor in the United States."

It's a very competitive school for children of the wealthy. I guess they want the students to get a taste of what it's like to live on minimum wages. It's an interesting book that shakes thing up a bit.

[rubicon]

Originally Posted by tomwed

The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock
That's new to me. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

The Jilting of Granny Weatherall ,also new to me
The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
thank-you

the Jilting of Granny Weatherall and J alfred can be read and re-read

[DanfromNC]

My reading list for the summer before freshman year(High School) included The Great Escape, The Hobbit, Catch 22, The Fixer, The Merchant of Venice, and Lord of the Flies. I actually read all of them except The Great Escape since the movie was on TV that summer.

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by Boomer

Many classics also appear on that famous list of banned books. (I hope Tal will find that list and link it for us. It is probably somewhere on the ALA site. I am on my iPad and still have not learned to link.)

Books that appear on the list of banned books are most often books than can get readers to THINK..........

For instance, Huck Finn is about right and wrong and friendship and Huck's true moral compass. Huck believes he will go to hell for helping Jim, the runaway slave. But Huck helps Jim anyway, even though he believes he is facing eternal damnation.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn gives the reader an opportunity to think about friendship and loyalty and questioning and soul-searching and decision-making and man's inhumanity to man and history and how character is revealed and a whole bunch of other stuff, but.......

Those self-righteous banners are always out to get Huck for that highly offensive word that is used repeatedly. Indeed, it is an offensive word, now, but in the 1800s it was just a part of the vernacular. When Huck uses the word in reference to his friend Jim, it is not a pejorative. The context of the word, of course, must clearly be addressed when introducing Huck to a class. In fact, such an intro can lead to excellent discussion about the power of words.

But I bet by now the banners have pretty much pounded Huck into high school English class history.

I wonder a lot about the true motivation of those so willing to ban Huck Finn......



PS: And nobody can write like Mark Twain. That man sure could turn a phrase.

Banned & Challenged Books This covers current banned books.


This covers books banned by various governments over the years-- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...by_governments

[Taltarzac725]

Originally Posted by tomwed

Thank-you Tal
You know you're old when In Cold Blood and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is way too old to be considered modern fiction because it's classic. Tal don't do any research but do you know how long a book has to be around to be considered a classic. I think with cars it could be 20 years. I'm not sure.

This seems to vary quite a bit. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_book

[rubicon]

A book offered me by a mentor was penned by Russell H Conwell, who among many accomplishments founded Temple University (circa 1884).

The book, manifesto really, is entitled "Äcres Of Diamonds".

I read it occasionally as it is one of my favorites. It is a collection of his speeches and one begins:

When going down the Tigris and Euphrates rivers many years ago with a party of English travelers I found myself under the direction of an old Arab guide....[/I]