As my last post described, I teach British Literature and I found this article very interesting. I wonder if my students would find it interesting, too.
http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/data-mining-classics-makes-beautiful-science-954577
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Shakespeare, Austen, and the Real World
School is almost upon me again and I am recharged and ready to tackle another year of challenges with the seniors at Curwensville High School. As I love to say, I got a year older and the kids have stayed the same age. But that's alright. Their enthusiasm, though often buried underneath levels of coolness and nonchalance and feigned indifference, comes out when I challenge them. They just want to avoid boredom and see some reason for studying Beowulf, The Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare and Austen
I wonder every year if teaching the British classics has any meaning, relevance, or use for my students. Shouldn't we be tackling content that will prepare them for the "real" world? Does Beowulf's struggle against Grendal help a student get a job? Does Ophelia's losing battle with her psyche say anything to students with an interconnected network of friends? I often do say to my students that, in all honesty, after they leave my class, they could live a long, happy, prosperous life and NEVER look at Shakespeare again. It is the truth. And yet, I still "make" them (as far as anyone can "make" an 18 year old do anything they don't want to do) read the classics.
I guess the answer for me dwells in the conversations I have with my former students when I run into them at parties or restaurants or sporting events. I have yet to talk to a student who said, "your class was completely pointless for me." Far more often I hear that the material challenged them and helped them face an obstacle and find a way to overcome it. That's where the true value of their English education reveals itself. I don't know if I could ever find material that would be universally applicable to all of their futures. Military, college, employment, and family life are right around the corner for all of them. I don't know exactly what they need to know for their future, and neither do they. So I guess the classics are going to have to suffice as roadblocks, obstacles, barriers, challenges, and predicaments for them to find their way through, around, over, under, and across.
Hey seniors, on your mark, get set, go! I hope you are ready to meet some new people because the "real" world is about to include Elizabeth Bennett, Winston Smith, Eustacia Vye, King Claudius, Sir Lancelot, and the Wife of Bath.
I wonder every year if teaching the British classics has any meaning, relevance, or use for my students. Shouldn't we be tackling content that will prepare them for the "real" world? Does Beowulf's struggle against Grendal help a student get a job? Does Ophelia's losing battle with her psyche say anything to students with an interconnected network of friends? I often do say to my students that, in all honesty, after they leave my class, they could live a long, happy, prosperous life and NEVER look at Shakespeare again. It is the truth. And yet, I still "make" them (as far as anyone can "make" an 18 year old do anything they don't want to do) read the classics.
I guess the answer for me dwells in the conversations I have with my former students when I run into them at parties or restaurants or sporting events. I have yet to talk to a student who said, "your class was completely pointless for me." Far more often I hear that the material challenged them and helped them face an obstacle and find a way to overcome it. That's where the true value of their English education reveals itself. I don't know if I could ever find material that would be universally applicable to all of their futures. Military, college, employment, and family life are right around the corner for all of them. I don't know exactly what they need to know for their future, and neither do they. So I guess the classics are going to have to suffice as roadblocks, obstacles, barriers, challenges, and predicaments for them to find their way through, around, over, under, and across.
Hey seniors, on your mark, get set, go! I hope you are ready to meet some new people because the "real" world is about to include Elizabeth Bennett, Winston Smith, Eustacia Vye, King Claudius, Sir Lancelot, and the Wife of Bath.
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