Are we short changing our children with current English Literature education?

Question

When I was at school ( a long time ago), some of the books I had to read were Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), Animal Farm, 1984 (George Orwell), Sons & Lovers (D H Lawrence), The Hobbit (Tolkien), and many others. These books inspired me to continue reading - Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Solzhenitsyn, Jane Austen, The Brontes, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Elliott, Balzac, Mervin Peake, Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Robert Graves, Evelyn Waugh, Grahame Greene and so on and so on.

My 15 year old son came home last week with an essay to do for English Lit on the film 6th Sense. I've never seen it. I've heard it's a good film. But......is it really literature??? Are we doing our children a great disservice by not introducing them to great literature?

Or am I just old fashioned and living in the past.

Answer 1

That would be Media Studies writing essay. It is one essay, marked for writing skills as opposed to reading- it is based on media so all students are marked on one topic nationally. You appear to have taken his comment as a blanket for his entire two year course without consulting his school and assumed it is 'fact' and the ethos of the curriculum needs to be questioned, rather than checking what is actually contained within the UK 11-16 curriculum.

I teach almost all of the above for English Literature, with MORE 'heavy' texts (such as Shakespeare and Dickens). I personally would not teach 'The Hobbit', for example, as it is a popularist childrens' book, and would be more suitable for a 12-13 year old class. Over the GCSE course, I teach two seminal 20th century novels, two 19th century, an anthology of poetry (both modern and pre-20th century) plus numerous short stories and factual texts. I like doing this, but I also HAVE to, because of the National Curriculum. This means if your son is at a state school he will be learning that, too.

I have noticed from scanning 'Answers' that you often criticise your son's education based on what HE says on return from school. You say things 'happen' which I know cannot, or the school would be punished by the exam board or OfSTED. You seem to be taking the very typical angle of a 'lad' of that age as gospel without giving the teachers (who are all, remember, graduates who love their subject) any credit. If you have genuine concerns, I would strongly suggest speaking direct to his teacher/head of the English department. I would also suggest you go to the websites for the National Curriculum and the exam board for his school, to check the real contents of his course. this should hopefully allay your concerns; anyone could be posting here- disgruntled teens, people from the USA assuming because you type in English you are from there (!!) and, of course, genuine teachers.

If you have a genuine issue with his education, go to the people delivering that education and confront them. That will resolve it rather than dragging you into a cycle of more and more questions resulting in 'hearsay' answers.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

No, you're not living in the past. New educational theorists are doing whacked out things, like having English classes write essays on movies because they have stories-- but they have nothing to do with reading critically, and nothing to do with imagination.

I'm completely with you. Dumbing down curricula to make it more relevant has no merit if the relevance comes at the expense of learning. We need to pretty much overhaul the American outlook on everything-- education first and foremost. This situation you're talking about is exactly why legislation is created to make sure teachers are certified, and it's exactly why students are failing standardized tests-- they're not even reading anymore!

Answer 4

I think film is very important to our time. Look at how much can be communicated through film and how our society adapts to it, reacts to it, learns from it, and mimics it.

As for it being literature, no, I think literature is the written word. However, that does not diminish the impact and the importance that film has on our society.

Until they start actually teaching media literacy in our schools, I think the Literature and English classes have to branch out to other media forms in order to try to show the kids the importance of them all.

Answer 5

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Answer 6

No. Your not old fashion and you are not living in the past. All children should have to read and give an essay on a book. Not a film.

Answer 7

I completely agree with you that modern film studies is quite different from English literature. I don't have a problem with people studying film but it is not appropriate in an English lit class for high school kids!

Answer 8

I am nineteen years old and just finished my freshman year of college. The students who watched movies throughout high school instead of reading books can hardly articulate themselves, have more difficulty reading aloud, and have atrocious handwriting.

I'm talking about COLLEGE students who have difficulty reading aloud.

Replacing reading with more "fun" or "interactive" media is one of the primary reasons people my age can hardly express themselves using the English language.