Even Homer Gets Cancelled By Leftist Mob

56

When the right did nothing for years when we were all being cancelled, where did they think it would lead?

Even Homer Gets Mobbed

A Massachusetts school has banned ‘The Odyssey.’

By Meghan Cox Gordon, By The Wall Street Journal, December 28, 2020:

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A sustained effort is under way to deny children access to literature. Under the slogan #DisruptTexts, critical-theory ideologues, schoolteachers and Twitter agitators are purging and propagandizing against classic texts—everything from Homer to F. Scott Fitzgerald to Dr. Seuss.

Their ethos holds that children shouldn’t have to read stories written in anything other than the present-day vernacular—especially those “in which racism, sexism, ableism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hate are the norm,” as young-adult novelist Padma Venkatraman writes in School Library Journal. No author is valuable enough to spare, Ms. Venkatraman instructs: “Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.”
The subtle complexities of literature are being reduced to the crude clanking of “intersectional” power struggles. Thus Seattle English teacher Evin Shinn tweeted in 2018 that he’d “rather die” than teach “The Scarlet Letter,” unless Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel is used to “fight against misogyny and slut-shaming.”[the_ad id=”110283″]
Outsiders got a glimpse of the intensity of the #DisruptTexts campaign recently when self-described “antiracist teacher” Lorena Germán complained that many classics were written more than 70 years ago: “Think of US society before then & the values that shaped this nation afterwards. THAT is what is in those books.”
Jessica Cluess, an author of young-adult fiction, shot back: “If you think Hawthorne was on the side of the judgmental Puritans . . . then you are an absolute idiot and should not have the title of educator in your twitter bio.”
An online horde descended, accused Ms. Cluess of racism and “violence,” and demanded that Penguin Random House cancel her contract. The publisher hasn’t complied, perhaps because Ms. Cluess tweeted a ritual self-denunciation: “I take full responsibility for my unprovoked anger toward Lorena Germán. . . . I am committed to learning more about Ms. Germán’s important work with #DisruptTexts. . . . I will strive to do better.” That didn’t stop Ms. Cluess’s literary agent, Brooks Sherman, from denouncing her “racist and unacceptable” opinions and terminating their professional relationship.
The demands for censorship appear to be getting results. “Be like Odysseus and embrace the long haul to liberation (and then take the Odyssey out of your curriculum because it’s trash),” tweeted Shea Martin in June. “Hahaha,” replied Heather Levine, an English teacher at Lawrence (Mass.) High School. “Very proud to say we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this year!” When I contacted Ms. Levine to confirm this, she replied that she found the inquiry “invasive.” The English Department chairman of Lawrence Public Schools, Richard Gorham, didn’t respond to emails.
“It’s a tragedy that this anti-intellectual movement of canceling the classics is gaining traction among educators and the mainstream publishing industry,” says science-fiction writer Jon Del Arroz, one of the rare industry voices to defend Ms. Cluess. “Erasing the history of great works only limits the ability of children to become literate.”
He’s right. If there is harm in classic literature, it comes from not teaching it. Students excused from reading foundational texts may imagine themselves lucky to get away with YA novels instead—that’s what the #DisruptTexts people want—but compared with their better-educated peers they will suffer a poverty of language and cultural reference. Worse, they won’t even know it.
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very old white guy
very old white guy
3 years ago

I hate all communists and all those who think socialism will save the world for lazy people.

Street Detective
Street Detective
3 years ago

Yeah, me too, Fellow Old Guy

dingo
dingo
3 years ago

I agree, That (lazy) has a lot to do with the GenZ, they don’t realize the ‘Z’ stands for ‘ZERO’
and lets face it, (old),
The Term “Life in Prison”, isn’t much of a Deterrent to the old.????
we just keep kicking @ss

Liberty712
Liberty712
3 years ago

I have pointed out in the past and I will do so again — educators graduate with the lowest GPAs and are the least academically accomplished people who actually graduate from college. In other words, the Dumb Dumbs of college graduates. And the content of this article is another example.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
3 years ago
Reply to  Liberty712

educators graduate with the lowest GPAs and are the least academically accomplished people who actually graduate from college.

I question whether or not they have the lowest GPAs. I would guess the Ed schools have very high GPAs, notwithstanding the low intellectual level that their graduates attain. Just as a guess, I will suggest the average Ed school grad has a higher GPA than the average BSEE.

Just as an aside, it’s a real treat to read snippets from Dr. Jill Biden’s dissertation, or whatever it’s called. Many junior high school students have better grasp of fractions than does “Dr. Jill”. Her dissertation is a veritable poster child for the pompous mediocrity of what passes for “higher education” today. Oh yeah, Jill’s doctorate is in …(drumroll)… education.

Fount
Fount
3 years ago

We need to cancel cancel culture. These maniacs must be removed from society. They must removed from classrooms across America. This is sheer and utter insanity. Who made the clinically insane arbiters of cultural values?

Enough is enough. If they don’t like our culture, leave!

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago
Reply to  Fount

It’s tough when they have tenure….

It gets more insane everyday!

Street Detective
Street Detective
3 years ago

I am reading a lot of sci-fi type, “modern literature,” on that Big Free Book Index that’s named after a river.

For the most part it stinks. It’s total crap.

And it’s part of what the lunatics want us all to read.

I have read or looked at HUNDREDS of their stupid books, or parts of them, to the point where I have compiled a rough list of things they insist we MUST include, or they are apparently not suited to Millennial reading.

( At the outset, let me say, Yes, of course, there are brilliant, tough women like Pamela Geller and all those whose write for American Thinker.)

A “Modern” Book Must Have:

“He rolled his eyes”
“He pinched bridge of his nose”
A Super duper female named Ellie or Kira who is just the best at everything including piloting, shooting, computers, hacking, being SMART, and especially fighting (she may weigh 110 lbs but can beat the crap out of ten men at once, all of whom may weigh up to 350 lbs.)
A Romance takes the entire book to happen.
No hero or heroine ever dies.
They always face a Superior alien or ancient race and science.
They always escape by making a Jump to hyperspace, light speed (real original.)
One person or group really runs everything–Earth—and they are evil and incompetent.
Women, transgender, and people who wear black lipstick or mohawk haircuts are ALWAYS TOTALLY SUPERIOR.
Their space craft is always a “…once-powerful, but older, in need of maintenance, U.S. Space-Navy warship….”
Old guns and armor are brought into play and destroy the enemy and always win the day
Aliens are from like 1933 fiction, and have snouts, fangs, 10 legs, or look like “Grays.”
The hero Must have tears flowing down his face so hard that they make pools on the table top!!! He must cry and sob like a 2 year old girl.
He must hate killing, but does it because it’s patriotic and orders from evil OLD white men at the top.
He has to hate his job.
Story should not make any sense.
A close relative should always be a serial killer.
Names of aliens and their officers and fleets should be VERY long and stoopid-sounding.
Other crew have to “weep.”
Must have at least one set of TWINS as characters.
Hero or heroine Never enjoys killing or inflicting pain.
Must have An AI that can do ANYTHING!
They always wear special “armored” suits that can do ANYTHING.
Use old-fashioned bullets and projectiles to win fight, not plasma guns or lasers.
She must punch him in the arm frequently, and it hurts him a lot. She is always a lot tougher, stronger, and waayyyyy smarter than he is. ALWAYS.
Must have Lots of vomiting at the sight of violence.
MUST UNDERGO Physical trials beyond human endurance, in running, fighting, wounds, etc.
Must sustain Head injury, concussion, pain.
THEY MUST EAT BOWLS OF CHILI!!!
Anything that goes wrong is the hero’s fault, “IT’S MY FAULT! IF I HADN’T _______ THEN THEY WOULD NOT BE _______!!!”
Must always be “so close” to bad guy he can smell the bad guy’s “rancid breath.”
Bad guy is alwayts a country hick and has “beer and tobacco” breath that is “rancid.”
Hero or heroine Must be TOTALLY INCAPABLE of killing anybody. Just can NOT happen.
Must say, “I’M GOOD,” a lot.
“My Bad.”
“Seriously?”
Must always be asleep as book opens, often with feet up if On The Bridge
Must always wake in cold sweat from nightmare and not know where he is
Fingers must always “FLY” over a keyboard.
Must always toss and turn and stay up all night
Or fall sleep instantly.
Legs MUST “burn with every step.”
Must have ribs cracked by a punch or a kick.
Must always have a headache or concussion but work through it and just keep going unattended.
MUST ALWAYS “sip,” never “drank, drink, drunk, gulped.”
Must always say, “I’m fine.” Or “I’ll be fine,” or It’s fine,” etc.

THIS is just some of the stupid crap they are writing these days as Millennial type “literature.” GONE are Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov, Burroughs, and all the others who made sci-fi great and memorable.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
3 years ago

Try reading Ursula LeGuin, or Sheri Tepper, or Heinlein at his best for a very different take on SF. Tepper is particularly taut and poignant.

(oh …. reading your last sentence, it looks like you have :>)

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

Many libraries are purging the classics and replacing them with crap so they have nothing else to read.

dingo
dingo
3 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

Only What they WANT them to Read

dingo
dingo
3 years ago

you mean like,
Stink, Stank, Stunk

jimbancroft
jimbancroft
3 years ago

This is insane, I once wrote an essay on Hawthorn and researched his bio and the times he lived and it is CLEAR Hawthorn was ANTI puritan, it is in his blood, his denunciations of the legalism and public shaming of puritanism and maybe because of his personal shame of his grandfather being one of the town-people of Salem during the Salem witch trials. That is so absurd!

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
3 years ago
Reply to  jimbancroft

Yeah, but he’s a DWM (Dead White Male) Jim. POC (People of Color) good, DWM bad. Besides, Hawthorne wasn’t obvious enough in his disdain for the worst aspects of Puritanism for idiots to get it!

These “educators” wrote the book on how to raise a generation of shallow, trendy ignoramuses.

stephen5970
stephen5970
3 years ago
Reply to  jimbancroft

Obviously, the writer (educator?) never read The Scarlet Letter. Reading the title and not the content he assumes its a Puritan screed. He probably fancies himself a feminist and just following the pack.

Adopted
Adopted
3 years ago

And people still think “Idiocracy” was just a movie.

RebelFred
RebelFred
3 years ago
Reply to  Adopted

It was Prophecy! ????

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago
Reply to  Adopted

In time… patience….

Halal Bacon
Halal Bacon
3 years ago
Reply to  Adopted

do you like money? I like money….

ed
ed
3 years ago
Reply to  Adopted

D’Oh !!!!!

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

Our education system is becoming nothing more than indoctrination. It’s like Hitler’s brown shirt school. It divides kids from parents, teaches debauchery is great, questions common sense like your sex, embraces Marxism and forces them to become Marxist advocates, denies them real knowledge that is useful and to only rely on emotions. The dumber they are and more emotionally driven they are, the more easily they are manipulated.

When I was more involved with education, I had to laugh at this. They claim to teach “critical analysis”. They give them cherry picked subjects and statements guaranteeing they will “critically” analyze it and purposely predetermine the outcome – while letting them believe they were critically analyzing it. It’s circular reasoning. They don’t expose them to truth! WHITE authors will eventually be banned for learning material. Their skin color alone makes them racist unless they hate white people and hate the nuclear family.

Biden is going to add to Obama’s Common Core. I couldn’t get myself to read all of it. It’s much worse than the existing Obama Common Core that Republican Governors rebranded with the exception of Gov. DeSantis in Florida and Gov. Abbot in Texas. Texas never accepted Common Core. Suffice to say, their goal is to have all youth buy into BLM and ANTIFA ideals. When I see little kids, I genuinely feel sorry for them. They have no future if Biden gets in. None!

Sure you can tell yourself, My kids will be different as I send them to the local indoctrination center but they won’t be. They will spend more time with the indoctrinators than with you. It’s like saying “quality” time is more important than quantity of time. The more time you spend with someone the more you can reinforce your world view. It’s always been that way. Many parents home school their kids to do just that! If you don’t homes school them or find a homeschooling co-op or locate a decent private school, they won’t have much of a future.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
3 years ago

“Absolving Shakespeare of responsibility by mentioning that he lived at a time when hate-ridden sentiments prevailed, risks sending a subliminal message that academic excellence outweighs hateful rhetoric.”

This strikes me as the epitome of trendy ignorance masquerading as insight. While Shakespeare had numerous unflattering references to Jews, the only developed Jewish character (that I’m aware of) was Shylock in Merchant of Venice. And sure, the Bard was appealing to the hoi polloi of his day who thrilled to see the alien Jew, Shylock, taken down.

But any half way close reading of Merchant shows a complex, nuanced character, one who was undone by legalisms (a supposed Jewish specialty). His daughter and his ducats were taken from him by aristocratic dandies. Yes, Merchant can play well into the hands of anti-Semites, but I would suggest that to do so is to rob Shylock of the humanity and complexity with which Shakespeare imbued the character.

It’s unlikely that Shakespeare ever even met a Jew in Judenrein England. But Shylock is a far more human character than say, Barabas in Marlowe’s contemporary play The Jew of Malta, who is a two-dimensional as some people here portray Moslems to be. (spoiler alert: Barabas too was wronged by those in power). I do not consider myself anti-Semitic in the slightest, even though I recognize Jewish style of interaction differs from, say WASP (or Korean) style. Still, even I get a chuckle out of Barabas’ famous line, when he was accused of the sin of fornication:

but that was in another country, / And besides, the wench is dead.

cinno1
cinno1
3 years ago

I think you incorrect and incompetent. Merchant is a thoroughly anti-Semitic play. If title character is given “nuance”, it’s only to make his defeat even more enjoyable. “Humanity”, “complexity”; they’ve really managed to brainwash you chum.

The bigger they come the harder they fall. And he’s not a Christian. Think of it like that chum. Theatre. “Humanity”, “complexity”? just bear-baiting, another popular crudity. You really have been brainwashed by the industry.

Liatris Spicata
Liatris Spicata
3 years ago
Reply to  cinno1

And I think you are a very banal man with a most limited mind. I rather doubt you have read Merchant. You certainly evidence no insight into it.

cinno1
cinno1
3 years ago

Well I was Associate Professor in English and Comparative Literature at a prestigious US University. I left to do another degree in a science elsewhere. Which might just be indicative of how ignorant you are. I have read all the dreary stuff written by Shakespeare. And Homer too. I prefer Illyad to Odyssey. I was, in American terms thereby, summa cum laude. Honoured. But don’t worry; you talk real good game. Do you froth at mouth too? Have you taken your medication today?

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

Off topic – A word to the wise … these vaccines were NEVER TESTED on kids!

DC Passes Bill to Vaccinate Children Without Parental Consent or Knowledge
Lawmakers pass Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act

By: Jay Greenberg |@NeonNettle on 28th December 2020 @ 1.00pm

The “Minor Consent for Vaccinations Amendment Act,” B23-017, was passed in D.C. last month.The bill that permits a child aged 11 years or older “to consent to receive a vaccine where the vaccination is recommended by the United States Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.”It also establishes that if a minor is able to comprehend the need for, the nature of, and any significant risks inherent in the medical care then informed consent is established.”

The bill not only permits children of this age to provide consent to doctors and other vaccine administrators without a parent’s knowledge or consent, but also requires school administrators, insurance companies, and medical personnel to conceal a child’s vaccination from their parents.In lines 37–38, the legislation mandates that “[p]roviders who administer immunizations under the authority of this subsection shall seek reimbursement, without parental consent, directly from the insurer” rather than involving a parent in this process.

Secondly, it mandates that insurance companies are not to notify parents of such payouts in the standard way, accoridng to LifeSite News.“Insurers shall not send an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) [to the child’s parents] for services provided,” the bill states (line 40).

Finally, B23-017 requires a health care provider to leave part of the immunization record “blank” in order to conceal from parents that their own child has been vaccinated (lines 48–52).In addition to this being a violation of fundamental and natural parental rights, critics say it may also lead to situations where children could be double-vaccinated.

It violates the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 (NCVIA), which requires health care providers to supply parents or guardians with vaccine information from the CDC prior to administering the vaccine to their minor child.

More such bills are expected to be introduced across the nation in 2021.

MORE here –

https://neonnettle.com/news/13701-dc-passes-bill-to-vaccinate-children-without-parental-consent-or-knowledge

The only thing public and other liberal schools see parents good for is MONEY!
Specifically, additional funding they didn’t get from the state.
Beyond that, they have no use for you.

Ed C
Ed C
3 years ago

Its easy to spot “educators” who have never held a real job.

Deplorably Right!
Deplorably Right!
3 years ago

Just like the N a z i s…
.

comment image

felix1999
felix1999
3 years ago

The only difference is the sheeple want this done.
They have convinced them they should hate these authors.
ANIFA and BLM and followers come to mind…

Deplorably Right!
Deplorably Right!
3 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

Absolutely.

Patriotic American
Patriotic American
3 years ago
Reply to  felix1999

And because they are so poisoned, they should kept out of the voting booth AT ALL TIMES.

RebelFred
RebelFred
3 years ago

comment image

stephen5970
stephen5970
3 years ago

Replace Homer with the complete illustrated collected works of Dick Tracy. Thats the ticket, well, until its determined to be sexist, anti-women, violent, racist, fun, et cetera.

It would be, until banned by the self-righteous, perfect for today’s illiterate, unable to read (or properly write) students in their last year of high school.

dingo
dingo
3 years ago

Truth here, That mustn’t meant to be.
we help each other NOT kill each other comment image

1PierreMontagne1
1PierreMontagne1
3 years ago

When in history evil is identified and defeated – the liberals remove the text from school – they don’t want students to get ideas on how to solve the problem of leftist evil.

leonore35
leonore35
3 years ago

I believe someone once said that those who forget their history are doomed to repeat it, or words to that effect.
Erasing our cultural heritage is doing just that. These people have no right to be in education. Plus those abject apologies are reminiscent of the sort of thing that went on In Soviet Russia and still goes on in Communist China, when people are ‘reeducated’.
People should stand by their principle and statements, apology is a sign of weakness

Schiff has Bette Davis Eyes
Schiff has Bette Davis Eyes
3 years ago

Women Destroy Nations

freewheel
freewheel
3 years ago

The woketards are fragile babies who have temper tantrums should an idea that upsets them appear.

They would like children to never grow up, but flit about like angry Peter Pans who are always wounded.

The tough and intellectual men and women of the past are just too much for them.

durabo
durabo
3 years ago

“Cancel culture” has been practised by Soviets and ChiComs for decades. No difference from the Amerikan Left.

Steve Saaf
Steve Saaf
3 years ago

comment image

Steve Saaf
Steve Saaf
3 years ago

comment image

illustrate100 James
illustrate100 James
3 years ago

Are they going to start burning books? If so, they need to salute with their arm straight out while the books are burning.

Je Suis Prest
Je Suis Prest
3 years ago

The “government” NEEDS you to be stupid – how else will they control you and tell you what you must think!!! Their goal is to turn you all into nonthinking democrats so they can keep you on the “plantation” where all of you wants & needs are supplied by the “benevolent government” who will care for you (and tell you what you think) from cradle to grave – may God have mercy on you if you ever start to think for your self (but .. but. … there is no “God”, except for the democrats)

Jim Kress
Jim Kress
3 years ago

“it’s stupid to judge the past by the standards of today because values and beliefs today are contemporary to today and cannot reflect the tensions or pressures of centuries ago.

You can only judge the past by the standards pertaining to that time. That is fair.

Jim Kress
Jim Kress
3 years ago

“it’s stupid to judge the past by the standards of today because values and beliefs today are contemporary to today and cannot reflect the tensions or pressures of centuries ago.

You can only judge the past by the standards pertaining to that time. That is fair.

Drifter
Drifter
3 years ago

Stupidity,. ignorance and public education, on parade…

Oldhorseshoer
Oldhorseshoer
3 years ago

The result of our “education” system.comment imagecomment image

Oldhorseshoer
Oldhorseshoer
3 years ago
Reply to  Oldhorseshoer

I rest my case.comment imagecomment image

Andrew Blackadder
Andrew Blackadder
3 years ago

We have a younger generation today that feels the need to run off and find a safe space so they can have a good old cry because somebody called them a bloody wanker… and thats just the boys… the wee soy boys…
Gawd help us all.

R.C. Smith
R.C. Smith
3 years ago

Has anyone said “Doh!” yet?

R.C. Smith
R.C. Smith
3 years ago

BTW, this is the inevitable result of Republican/conservative (including rank and file conservatives) support for mass immigration. We’re not a Western country anymore, we’re a polyglot colony of the world. American exceptionalism was always a crock, spouted by crooks out to fleece you, and stories like this, and the pulling down of the statues/names, and so many other signs of cultural destruction, are symptoms of that crock. It’s time for conservatives to acknowledge that this is all being driven by demographic change, to simply acknowledge reality and stop the oh-those-silly-leftists game.

ERNIE BRILL
ERNIE BRILL
3 years ago

sstrieI taught high school for over twenty years. I tried to expanded the canon because I infound many writers, within American Literature and from internatiional countries whose writing was so much better than many of the “classic” writers in the curricuum and to whom my students responded much more positively. I did not to the idea of “dead” white men. Writers such as Tolstoi, Hawthorne, Thomas Hardy, WilliamAmer Blake, and Damon Runyon are still very much alive to me. But it is true, nation white, that most high school English curricums feature mostly male white writers which gives generations of Americans a very liimited narrow view of lives in america. What is almost more important- our students do not get a chance to read scores of superior novels and poetry collections by African American writers such as Toni Morrison, Richard Wright, Gwendolyn Brooks, Sterling a. Brown, James Alan McPherson, and others. Same goes with Asian American, LatinoaAmerican, Native American, and a host of international writers.

ERNIE BRILL
ERNIE BRILL
3 years ago

aSo many writers have works of a profoundly more intelligence, artfullness, and excitement than some of the pallid choices we offer our students. And much of the curriculum is deprressing and sad,d which modern day teachers deem “showing the human condition.” Well, there is more to the human condition that consant suffering or as my sister dubs it” another crippled dwarf gets it in the neck”. We start our kids with Lord of the Flies in 9th grade ( with some AWFUL “descriptive writing” and the totally destructive moral concept the humanity is basically born evil (the “stain” manyTh writes waddle in) and when they are seniors we give them Hamlet, another barrel of laughs. THERE IS VERY LITTLE HUMOR IN MOST HIGH SCHOOLS ENGLISH C toURRICULUM and who were the fools who ever said tragedy was superior to comedy????????? ( This is one of the reasons so many schools have had so much success adding to our curriculums Sherman Alexie’s Flight or Diary of A part time Indian for middle schools, and for high school 9th or tenth grades The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistgfight in Heaven.I cant even begin to describe the effect our inclusion in our curricculum of Latin American writers such as the poets Pablo Neruda and theAmerican Martin Espada, and the inclusion of a month long senior unit on Literature of the Middle

ERNIE BRILL
ERNIE BRILL
3 years ago

Middle East, featuring Mahmoud Darwish, one of the two greatest poets of the twentieth century. Had he not been an Arab, he woluld have won the Nobel Prize decades ago.
Meanwhile we retain certain books that have limited attraction to our students, partly because the writing is somewhat tepid and dull,, such as two novels about coming of age that feature wealth private school students- Salingers Catcher In TheRye and Joh kowles’ A Seperate Peace, laluded by many as classics. Yet many people find Holden Caulfied to be a selfpitying Woody Allen in progress (minus a whole lot of humor) and in sesperate peace the charactter are umemorable like popcorn after you’re done eating.
Another problem is that Amerian high schools ater to the ‘advanced ” students, the'”AP” crowd. They get the best teachers, the smallelst classes, the better classrooms. It’s disgusting. And there are often “helicopter” parents, mostllyl oprofot essionals – doctors, college professors too cheap to send their kids stoprivate school, therapists, etcc.fgffd. TBS.
Last but not least. For many students, The Odessey is the first and only “LONG” book that they read in thheir high school experience. Except fAP classes, most English classes MIGHT read four or five novels in theier twenty week class then go through the grinding task of reading small lpieces from hideously edited antholgies by so called educators rushing to have ‘something multicultural’ because they cant comit the time or money to get our kids some of the unsung great works of American literatre including such terrific Native American novels as Welchs Fooils Crow or Susan Poweres’ TheGrass Dancers, or Lo

ERNIE BRILL
ERNIE BRILL
3 years ago

There are many “sayings” in the field of education. There so many weeds in the field, some nearly poisonous and some harmless yet irritating, like the beautiful sounding “golden rod” that wreaks mild havoc on those with hayfever propensities. So one must be a kind of learning horticulture/botanist to know how to handle the various weeds, and make one’s way through them. One of these sayings, some say is “cliche”; other claim it ther o be an actual truth. This saying goes like this.” STUDENTS WILL RISE TO THE LEVEL OF EXPECTATION. Ive found this to be very true of ALLl my students. Many balked and sqawked when they saw the syllabus. “TEN BOOKS!” And at the end of the semster they would turn to each otl her and say< Can you believe read all these books? And some of them were LONGASSED books. That's right. Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits is 400 plus pages. I wont kid youss kSspa; some students read the sparknotes. But overall, in my classes sthat averaged 28 students, Id say 70-80 percent of the students re

ERNIE BRILL
ERNIE BRILL
3 years ago

egoryread all or most of the books. And yes and they rose to the occason. I could write three or four books about it. Also, let me add this. I was HIRED at Northampton High School in 1993 because the high school’s English uDepartment had been cited by the state for “not having books in the cs urriculum by women writers and writers of color for all three “levels” of English instruction: honors(9th and 10th/AP11 and 12); the “regular students”, and theg third and lashe t category- ESL and Special Education students , t he schools bottom level that one AP student referred to as “THE RETARDS AND THE RICANS.” And there was always on ongoing struggle for educationaal equity for the ESL and sptionecial education students. TBC And as far as Homer goes, his editor shouldl have told him to cust all stheunecessay desciptions.

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Thanks for sharing!