tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post6974516765532568626..comments2024-03-14T16:57:29.045-04:00Comments on Whisky Prajer: “Authors and teenagers share the books that saved their life”dpreimerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09905531259256800022noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-70339937096917772152015-02-03T14:00:16.579-05:002015-02-03T14:00:16.579-05:00Yeah, an introduction to First Aid would be along ...Yeah, an introduction to First Aid would be along the same lines.dpreimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09905531259256800022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-30199188591676346082015-02-02T21:36:54.700-05:002015-02-02T21:36:54.700-05:00I suppose an outdoor survival guide is the sort of...I suppose an outdoor survival guide is the sort of book most likely to *literally* save one's life :)<br /><br />PeterAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-42926252665161156282015-01-21T07:16:13.917-05:002015-01-21T07:16:13.917-05:00"Saved my life" seems an overly-dramatic..."Saved my life" seems an overly-dramatic way to phrase things, especially since, during my bookstore days, we'd usually smirk at claims that "This book <i>changed</i> my life." Uh-huh. But for teens life is an overly-dramatic affair. At some point I threw out the various notebooks I'd used for confessional purposes -- oy, but the ennui and angst that percolated my adolescent brain!<br /><br />You'd be a good guy to talk curriculum with, though. This business of Elliot, for example: I have to laugh, because I can't imagine him ever thinking, "This is gonna be on some kid's final exam!" as he penned <i>The Wasteland</i>. Not that authorial intention should ever preclude exposure. But what, exactly, do curriculum developers hope to achieve by foisting Elliot on kids who mangle a Katy Perry lyric when they sing to the radio? In an environment where the concept of cultural literacy is increasingly up for grabs, I have to wonder if a survey of Cliff's Notes -- people talking about cultural literacy, or summary vs. actual encounter -- isn't the most direct route toward the goal?dpreimerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09905531259256800022noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329706.post-7356164914634540992015-01-20T21:02:44.754-05:002015-01-20T21:02:44.754-05:00A book that saved my life...I'm not sure I hav...A book that saved my life...I'm not sure I have anything that would fit that category. But then, my life was never dramatic enough to need any saving....The best I could do is perhaps books that opened up new areas of interest for me.<br /><br />Regarding your other point about curriculum's, however....As someone who has to force march students through literature myself (albeit in an ESL setting), it has become very apparent to me that there's no such thing as a book everyone likes. Different books will appeal to different types of people, and the best I hope for now is that some of the students will really like the book. If some of the students really react positively to the book, I consider my job done.<br /><br />I suppose it might be an open question as to whether students should ever be forced to read literature they don't like under any circumstances. (I have an high school teacher friend, a Canadian actually, who used to complain about how teaching T.S. Elliot to his high school class was just giving pearls to swine. And I thought, "Of course. You can't force someone through that stuff if they're not ready for it yet.") <br />Maybe students should just pick their own reading material, and report on it, rather than trying to have the whole class read the same book?<br />But, if you are going to try to have a set book for the class, I'm sympathetic to the idea that you would want that book to be a "classic". Reading a classic can give the students some sense of cultural literacy, which allows them to participate in a lot of conversations when they get older. So all that is to say I can understand why high school teachers are assigning Salinger instead of Twilight. Joel Swagmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14948746083822200906noreply@blogger.com