4 Ways High School Makes You Hate Reading | Cracked.com

sesinkhorn:

moniquill:

Yes exactly this!

Educators take note, by the way, that folks are doing exactly the kind of deep analysis and active criticism -IN FANDOM ONLINE- as you’re trying and failing to teach in class, and they’re enjoying every minute of it.

I WILL LOATHE THE SCARLET LETTER UNTIL THE END OF TIME.

This is interesting, because even though I LOVED to read, high school English classes nearly turned me off to reading. I especially remember hating The Sun Also Rises. I also remember being discouraged from reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin because it was science fiction and not “serious” literature, even though it is clearly a groundbreaking classic. (I’m not sure if the teacher knew exactly what that book was about!)

I’m pretty sure it was the general sense that I “should” be reading serious lit’rature that made me avoid taking English lit in college … even though I wanted to be a writer. Instead, I majored in economics and Chinese Studies. They taught me very valuable things about the way the world works, and I don’t regret skipping college English classes at all.

On the other hand, I did take two writing workshops, one in short fiction and one in poetry. These were invaluable because they focused on the practicalities of writing, not on analyzing the themes in some book written a hundred years ago about white men.

(via yahighway)

Source: moniquill

176 Notes/ Hide

  1. wishverse reblogged this from venuscomb
  2. lumpyspacefemme reblogged this from grumpyfemme and added:
    I can’t tell you how much I hated reading most of the books assigned to me in high school. It got so bad that when I...
  3. grumpyfemme reblogged this from femmeamie
  4. imstillcookiedough reblogged this from venuscomb
  5. roamingreader reblogged this from venuscomb
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  7. spencer-montgomery reblogged this from venuscomb
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  10. lepidum-libellum reblogged this from eshusplayground
  11. reesespenisbutter reblogged this from chihuahua0
  12. chihuahua0 reblogged this from yahighway
  13. sarajanerispoli reblogged this from sesinkhorn and added:
    Not that I have time to read anymore, anyway.
  14. mycat-tibby reblogged this from sailordonut
  15. soofdope reblogged this from malindalo
  16. damnkdramas reblogged this from zoeblaize
  17. zoeblaize reblogged this from sailordonut
  18. danikasapphistry reblogged this from malindalo and added:
    I did become an English major, and the fandom analysis really is more in depth and interesting than what we were talking...
  19. sailordonut reblogged this from sesinkhorn
  20. calanthe reblogged this from malindalo
  21. elsajeni reblogged this from yahighway and added:
    Copying over my comment from a related Hairpin thread, in reply to someone saying that it’s hard for teens to identify...
  22. caffeinated-cake reblogged this from yahighway
  23. selfimportantweaverofwords reblogged this from toxxy
  24. toxxy reblogged this from sushie-shuakhwe and added:
    I was very lucky by the time my final year in high school my teacher let me read what the hell I wanted in class because...
  25. sushie-shuakhwe reblogged this from yahighway
  26. luckydicekirby reblogged this from malindalo
  27. girladactyl reblogged this from yahighway
  28. onawednesdayafternoon reblogged this from malindalo and added:
    A million times yes. I haven’t loved anything as much as I loved this article in a long time. All of my thoughts, in...
  29. mcnallykids reblogged this from yahighway and added:
    Am I the only person alive who loved high school English?