Exactly, its just that earlier it sounded like she was chastising the school systems alone, thats why I said what I did. I do agree that high school is more dependent on the student than say, grade school. Younger and younger children need more and more structure from their surroundings while as they grow older more and more personal initiative is required. How much initiative they put in may be directly related to their earlier schooling. Yes, politicians seem to love to look like they care about children, who doesn't love children? Certainly not them! (Sarcasm) Standardized testing is just the easiest most efficient way to test children's intelligence, but obviously not the best. I think its a fair medium, so long as it stays as is or gets better.
I'll admit that I'm a bit jaded. I live in Georgia, and our state standards ... well, let's just say that I'm glad I graduated when I did.
That's just dumb. It limits what texts you can look at on a certain theme/style. They should offer American literature modules (like they do in england [you do 6 modules in a year over here]), but not make it the entire course. In the UK, we just study different themes in writing and different writing styles, and how culture affects theses themes/the writing is often a point that you can look at; it's a shame that you can't do that in america, it limits what you can get from the course. Oh well, i might just go to Canada instead; they have snow.
What's wrong with these books? I had to read a number of them in my literature class too, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Edgar Allan Poe is one of my favorite classic writers. So is Nathaniel Hawthorne.
I don't think there is anything wrong with the books themselves, just the fact that they are there only choice.
(My last post was way further in the thread than i thought it was, i need more sleep) Anyway, how do your Uni classes work (my knowledge is limited to information i gleamed from saved by the bell). Do you pick one class, then study that for 3 years (or 2 classes for a joint honours). Or do you pick several classes to study for a year (so your classes are like our modules), and keep mixing and matching different topics? Anyway, if you don't like your Uni, move to england. We have a legal drinking age of 18! Anyway, i think that a teacher who's brilliant to one pupil can be terrible for another. My favourite english teachers are the lazy, laid back ones, but who'll help you if you want/need. I find you can have better discussions about what you're studying with them, not too much of a Q & A format. Although for other (more scientific) subjects, it's quite the opposite (subjects where you're trying to understand complex/abstract methods/concepts).
I guess I can see where you're coming from, but then, when do we ever have a choice in school? Sure, we get to pick some of our classes, but no matter what the class, the curriculum is never up to the students. So, seeing as that's the way our education is and always has been, I'd say that the books they choose for us aren't so bad.
My english class has one teacher one week, and another the next, so we have two teachers, and neither of them are actually trained as english teachers. One is a food technology (home ecomonics) teacher, and the other is a maths teacher(neither have actual positions at the school in their elements). The one trained in maths is much better at teaching english than the other. If you like some of these books, then why say you "hate" american literature, when you dont? You just dislike some of it.
... because I say I hate everything. I'm a hormonal teenager. It's kind of what I do. I actually am quite fond of all literature, and I don't place it into categories like "american" or "english." I just wanted to complain about something.
