I remember reading I Am the Cheese in seventh grade, I was kind of shocked when the girl says something about her breasts (“lugging these things around”). I didn’t realize you could do that in a book! I don’t know that any of us liked it, and we liked the movie version even less.
Sure. But I think most people come to the conclusion that Holden is a douchebag - you certainly did - so I’m not sure it’s encouraging self-pity.
I imagine the socialism issue was one reason.
There may be legit complaints about Holden as narrator, but I’ve never heard anyone before complain that he doesn’t talk like a real teenager. The voice is dead on, in my opinion. What about the voice seems off? Is it the vocabulary? His ability to feel frustration he can’t express? His constant whining? His self absorption? Yeah, no teenager ever talked like that. Remembering that the book takes place in the 1940s, which isn’t a period I have first-hand experience of, I can say enough things seem accurate about his voice to presume that some upper class teenagers in New York probably talked like that, or, if not, I don’t know what the red flags are supposed to be.
I can distinctly remember that any group “discussion” in high school ended up devolving into idle chat. If the teacher in my classes couldn’t teach directly about what we were learning/reading half of the class wouldn’t have learned anything.
Then your teacher wasn’t very good, or wasn’t aware of the teaching techniques of the last 15 years, I’m sorry to say. My mother (6th grade) and my husband (college) are both award-winning teachers who specialize in a learning model called “cooperative learning,” in which it is literally impossible to complete an assignment without every member of the group working and working hard. It’s a little more complex to set up, but once you have a group educated in the process, there’s no time or inclination for idle chit-chat, and it’s far more effective than other learning models.
But it is a far cry from a bored teacher who tells you to get in groups of six and discuss chapter 5. I agree that this simply doesn’t work with high school kids.
It’s pretty much established that lectures don’t teach anyone anything. That doesn’t mean that a discussion automatically does – it has to be well moderated. But lectures are unproductive even to a motivated group that takes notes. It’s just not effective to passively absorb information, especially when the real objectives of the class are not for the students to aquire information, but (one presumes) have an ability to appreciate, analyze, and understand literature.
One benefit of teaching such books as Catcher in the Rye is that every class will have at least one cricetus, who loves it, and one gobear, who hates it – and that motivates discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of the character, the narrative voice, etc. Even if it’s as deeply flawed as gobear thinks, it’s still an effective teaching tool, one that can lead to discussions on the purpose of literature, the attitudes of young adults, and so on.
I thought Catcher would be banned because of the ‘dirty words’. That’s what it usually is.
But I mainly posted in this thread to say that I deeply, deeply loathe Robert Cormier’s works. They seem filled with hate. And they aren’t at all well-written (The Chocolate War is okay, I guess).
Of course, they shouldn’t be banned. Even though I didn’t like them, I’m glad I had the chance to pick them up in my school library and read them on my own. But I can’t see why anyone would actually assign them in class when there are so many better books available. Again - if a teacher wants to, bully for them, but I would question said teacher’s taste, is all.
Daphne
Maybe they see things in the book you don’t. After all, they make a living out of thinking about books.
I’m just sayin’.
Grapes of Wrath didn’t make the top 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books.
Interesting. Is this referring to all students or just K-12? And is it talking about a straight lecture model or lecture mixed in with other classroom activities? I’d appreciate a cite.
Oh, I dunno, I think you had it right the first time…Craptacular? (hehe). It was required reading for the english course I DIDN’T take in HS, I took SciFi English instead and so I got to read Dune, a Buncha Ray Bradbury, Issaac Asimov, stuff like that.
So, I didn’t read “Catcher in the Rye” til my thirties. I thought its plot was weak as water. As you said, practically nonexistant. I had to MAKE myself finish it, since I read at least one “classic” each summer, but Arrrrrrgggh, that one was hard to finish.
It’s just one link, but it’s pretty much gospel in all levels of education. Google “least effective” and “teaching,” and you’ll find dozens more just like it. Most research is not directed at proving or disproving lectures are effective, but at HOW to make them effective, by integrating lecture with other activities, as you suggest. That is called, by people in the field, “direct instruction,” which means the classic classroom model of lecture mixed with question and answer, call-and-response style teaching. Proponents of this argue that it is very effective, but their data is based on students barfing back information on a test, which doesn’t map very well to students attaining high-end skills like thinking for themselves, solving problems, directing their own inquiry, etc.
I’d post more, but I really have to go to work.
You know, if you really want to develop the circulum for your kid - homeschool…
Tinfoil hat time: Maybe the idea is:
Have a bunch of people pull their kids to homeschool to avoid the EEEVILS of evolutionary theory, but simultanously proving that it is possible to give your own children a decent education at home.
Challenge books and science in the classroom so the public school system is completely watered down.
Anyone intellegent (conservative and liberal) who can afford to pulls their kid into a private school, or homeschools. After all, people have already proven homeschooling can be effective (see #1).
(side effect: someone, usually mom, needs to be a SAHP in order to homeschool, fulfilling conservative agenda requirement number 23. Cheap private schools are usually religious in nature, indoctronating the youth of others - agenda item #37 and school vouchers become even more popular and are implemented - agenda item #17).
Ineffective public education is only teaching the minimum, so get rid of it. Most voters by this time aren’t using it.
TAX BREAK FOR EVERYONE! (conservative agenda requirement #1).
(Do I hear black helicopters?)
As a senior, we had an ‘Independent Reading’ course where you didn’t have a class but met with someone for a hour once a week. ‘Class’ held in the library. Since I read many books anyway I thought this would require no work and get English credit.
Nope…nada…
Instead of Asimov, King and other sci-fi and horror I had to read gasp literature! No-one told me that!!!
He had me read Catcher In the Rye (which I didn’t really like or get into) as the first book and also Grapes of Wrath as the second. I approached the book with loathing especially after Catcher in The Rye. It looked big and and sounded boring.
He assigned it Friday afternoon. The next week we met on Monday because he was going to be gone the rest of the week.
I walked in and proclaimed that it was the best book I’d ever read. He couldn’t believe I read it over the weekend and qizzed me relentlessly before he was satisfied.
After that, I never argued with his choices. One of the best classes I have ever taken and some of the best books I have ever read.
