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class were no longer applicable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