I'm sick and I'll probably regret noticing a sad & angry little man: let's leave aside questions of quality & relevance to consider his initial claim here. He's light on particulars, but I'll assume he means what we might have once called the Western Canon.https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333639391382822914 …
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The thing about Classics, you see, is they're old. It may be true that the Iliad is not inherently important; it's a contingent work that could have been different or not existed at all. But it exists, and everything--first in the West, by now everywhere--formed around it.
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(The thing, indeed, about even the phrase "The Western Canon" is that it exists to acknowledge the existence of these other threads. Genji is awesome! I wish I could actually read Genji, but my Japanese was barely good enough to plow through Harry Potter in translation.)
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Kendric Tonn Retweeted David Bowles
Anyway, these are some of the reasons to teach English, but he's missing a fundamental one: everyone is born into an accidental world--reactions piled on accidents. In Housman's words, we're born "a stranger and afraid/ In a world [we] never made."https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333637778316419072 …
Kendric Tonn added,
David Bowles @DavidOBowlesWe teach English to foster reading & writing in young people's lives, to guide them to mastery of skills they really need, to instill in them a love for and ability to use written language that will last them a lifetime. We don't need the old books y'all fools love for that. 2/Show this thread2 replies 3 retweets 19 likesShow this thread -
One of the great purposes of education is to orient the student to the world in which he finds himself. Let us grant the premise that Hamlet sucks & will turn kids off to reading--nonetheless, those kids exist in a world that is, in a very real way, built on Hamlet.pic.twitter.com/dxqJkkc1rQ
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Kendric Tonn Retweeted David Bowles
And let's just talk about this attitude for a second. Dave is, essentially, telling children from oppressed and under-represented groups that they shouldn't be included in the world. What a triumph for diversity that would be.https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333643142558605314 …
Kendric Tonn added,
David Bowles @DavidOBowlesEspecially when you propose we force the canon on children from oppressed, under-represented groups. They need literacy, not to conform to your egregiously backwards notions of literary quality, BUT TO LIBERATE THEMSELVES FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!! Written language is a tool. 10/Show this thread2 replies 5 retweets 37 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @kendrictonn
The thing I really don’t get is... do they think these things are canon despite being hated by everyone? I for one think a love of any subject is best taught by teachers sharing topics in that field they love. For my old math teacher it was combinatorics, but many love hamlet
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Replying to @drethelin
(To be clear, I'm granting the premise that Hamlet sucks only for argument!) But yeah, I'm willing to accept that kids are basically universally going to be resistant to reading Shakespeare, but... indeed. My favorite prof in college was a medievalist, for similar reasons.
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Replying to @kendrictonn @drethelin
I think that rubbing kids' noses in stuff that they're too young to appreciate isn't great ...but I also think ignoring the canon is bad too were it me, I'd not make kids read all of Moby Dick, but perhaps one chapter, and then TALK about it, explaining why it's great that >>>
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2/ gives them awareness of the canon, lets them know what to come back to and read on their own in 5-15 years, etc
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Replying to @MorlockP @drethelin
Yeah, I wouldn't care to actually be tasked with designing the curriculum and approaches, but trying to get a high-level survey of the crucial things seems sensible to me
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