The Problem With English Class

[Music]

as an undergraduate english major

a question i often like to ask people is

if they enjoyed their high school

english class

when i asked people this question i kept

hearing the same conclusions

again and again they hated it and

why did they hate it they hated it

because they often found the books they

were reading to be

uninteresting or they didn’t understand

them

particularly because they weren’t

applicable weren’t written in modern

english

or were no longer relevant to people

living in the 21st century

outside of those reasons many of the

people i talked to simply thought a lot

of the books they were reading

were dull and boring and

you know what i as someone who

really enjoys studying english and has a

deep love of literature

including many of the so-called classics

i agree

i found that many books i was reading in

class were no longer applicable

or relevant to my life and a lot of them

were just dull and boring

along with that many of the books i was

reading in class

were written well before i was alive

with most of them being written in the

18th or 19th century

that means most of these books were

written to be relevant

for my great great great

great great great great

great grandparents not me most of the

books that you and i

read in our english classes are not

books i think we should be teaching the

students or recommending to readers

inside or outside the classroom

particularly at ages where

people are getting into true literature

like middle school and high school age

students

i’ve completed 12 english classes as an

undergrad

other than my undergraduate thesis i’m

completely done with all the english

classes needed for my degree

with that being said that means i’ve sat

in english class in the last three years

for nearly 500 hours

that doesn’t include all the thousands

of hours i’ve spent

outside of class reading writing doing

research

and the hundreds of other hours i’ve

spent at every other level of education

out of all those hours i’ve spent

reading and studying english

there’s only been one novel and a

handful of excerpts i’ve read for class

that were written within my lifetime

now is it really the case that there’s

only been one novel

and a handful of excerpts written within

my lifetime

that were worth reading and studying

absolutely not

if anything we’re probably in the

greatest era of writing in all of human

history

there’s never been greater access to

english education

or greater access to publication ever

before in history

the number of authors being published

and a number of books being published

annually

has only increased as time’s gone on

that along with the multitude of

services that allow people to rate

and share books they enjoy such as new

york times bestsellers

and npr book reviews and goodreads which

is

basically facebook for books there are

multiple avenues

for people to weed out the bad books and

find 21st century gems

now if we have a seemingly endless

amount of modern books to choose from

the capacity to figure out which ones

are good and which ones are bad

without actually having to read each

book ourselves

and the opportunity to share these books

with others

why shouldn’t we do it why aren’t we

currently doing it

on the other hand am i saying that we

should eliminate all old authors

that there are no good author or no good

old authors that are worth reading

absolutely not of course there are

plenty

of great pieces of classic literature

that are excellent and certainly worth

reading and teaching however

by and large most of the pieces we’re

reading in class are not those pieces

those good pieces are few and far

between in class and those good pieces

we read in class

of classic literature should be

considered the exception

not the rule now

i know every english teacher out there

is saying well

spencer what about having a unified

literary canon

or what about children learning

vocabulary words that are used more

often in order text that we don’t

currently find in newer text

or whatever other reasons they come up

with

that we should be teaching older texts

instead of newer texts

well i hear you and

on one hand i see your point and i

understand that this model is not

perfect

there certainly could be some things

that students miss out on with this

model

however the things they would miss out

on are extremely minor compared to the

benefits

of better understanding enjoying and

relating to the text they’re reading

i believe many teachers are hesitant to

teach newer texts

because they’re worried about disrupting

the

english literary canon well if you want

to talk about the canon for a moment

the current status quo of the canon

among non-academics

is mostly discussing the canon and the

context of hating those books that they

read in class

i mean wouldn’t it be so much better if

the english-speaking population

was a population that loved reading and

in turn

became lifelong readers i see no reason

why we can’t have a unified canon of

modern text

it’s pretty well established that many

modern authors are going to go down with

some of the greatest of all time

such as jk rowling james patterson

stephen king and many other modern

authors

why aren’t we teaching them in our

english classes i know your first

thought is

are you really saying that we should be

teaching harry potter to middle school

and high school students

yes i absolutely am there is

absolutely no reason why we can’t teach

things like

theme characterization plot development

setting diction syntax or whatever else

it is that you may be learning in your

english class

through a harry potter book if possible

why don’t we give students a book

they’re actually going to enjoy along

the way

i believe making sure people understand

the difference between

onomatopoeia and alliteration should not

be the primary goal

of english teachers but instead creating

a populace of lifelong readers should be

the highest priority

far above using awful old texts

because they incorporate more technical

concepts

than a modern text does that’s actually

palatable

for students to read instead of looking

at the summary five minutes before class

starts

the most important reason i advocate for

reading modern authors

over older authors is because something

older authors can’t do

is write in the context of the here and

now 21st century authors

are able to account for current events

current societal problems

current technology and modern english

words and speech

do you remember slogging through

shakespeare in high school and not even

understanding what’s going on in the

scene

me too in shakespeare’s julius caesar

the character kaska when he doesn’t

understand something

says but for my own part it was greek to

me

you know what shakespeare i agree when i

feel like i’m reading your novels it

feels like

it’s it’s like reading greek to me many

of you may be asking

well i’m never going to be in english

class again so

why should i care well if you’re a

parent

or planning on being one don’t you want

your children to have the best education

possible

wouldn’t you love if your children

enjoyed reading

if you’re a teacher don’t you want these

same things

don’t you want your students to enjoy

reading and

look forward to coming to class plus

from a simply utilitarian perspective

wouldn’t this cut down on cheating

i mean there’s a spark notes or schmute

page for

pretty much every traditional text

taught in an english class

and i feel like i’ve read them all at

this point do you know how many papers

i’ve written that i haven’t read the

book for

way too many to count and

lastly if you’re someone like me who had

an

awful time in their high school english

class and hated the books that they were

reading

wouldn’t you like to know what a good

and modern relevant book is like

i mean frederick bachmann does an

excellent job discussing current

societal issues

while also having interesting stories on

the surface

bernice mcfadden is releasing great

pieces all the time

fareed zakaria’s a post-american world

does an excellent job

dissecting america’s current and future

role in the world

terence hayes may be the best poet of

all time and he’s written

six collections that have been published

within the last 20 years

i promise you there’s a multitude of

excellent modern works out there

please don’t let your bad childhood

english classes

stop you from enjoying all the current

library of modern

excellent works we have whenever you get

a chance

please go to your bookstore go to a

library and pick up a good

modern entertaining relevant text in

your life

and learn to fall in love with reading

thank you