Texsox Posted November 13, 2007 Share Posted November 13, 2007 Prince of Tides and the omnipotent teacher in one corner vs. the citizens of the US in the other. Like YAS mentioned, if you are paying for the truck, you aught to have some input on what it carries. No one should be above scrutiny who cashes a public paycheck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted July 10, 2014 Share Posted July 10, 2014 Huge bump, but I've thought about this thread several times in the past five years. I've wondered how my opinion may have changed since I've been teaching English literature for several years now. It hasn't, in fact I could probably build an even stronger case now. There are certain requirements or concepts that are required to be taught and those never mention a specif work. At most there are genre requirements. Teachers use materials to teach that requirement. So substituting a different novel would not be a problem. I've had parents contact me about class novels, particularly Homeboyz with all the profanity (f***, b****, etc) that I've been using in 8th grade. So far each parent has been cool with it after we have had an opportunity to discuss why it is being used. Today I would substitute another novel in a heartbeat *and* get the parent involved in discussing the alternate novel with their child. Then I am certain one kid actually reads the material. I will be teaching concurrent enrollment classes in 2015/16 so I will be in the exact same position as this. I wonder how LCR is doing as a teacher. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Posted July 31, 2014 Share Posted July 31, 2014 I still give benefit of the doubt to the teacher to decide when difficult subjects should be taken on by students. One of literature's primary functions is as a means to grapple with the world, which unsurprisingly often means trying to reflect upon and understand the ugliness of the world. I haven't read Prince of Tides, but from what I know about its content I don't see anything overtly problematic outside of the fact it has never struck me as an especially "good" book. The "objectionable" portions of the content don't seem outside the realm of what can and should be encountered in a high school literature course. Rape, in particular, should be something that teenagers are exposed to in settings like this. Many women (estimates range from 1 in 6 to 1 in 4) will be raped in their lifetime. Young men should be exposed to discussions of it and depictions of it to understand what it really is before they might develop warped perceptions about what that means. Aside from specific subject matter, I think one of the valuable pedagogical moments for students of literature is to deal with works they don't like. Teach them to argue texts and, more specifically, to build arguments that go beyond simple evaluative judgments. Even better, get them to build compelling arguments in writing. I would expect the same from a parent as well. I'm not going to give them the Dikembe and just say "I'm the teacher nanana boo boo" but I'm going to expect a substantive argument about why I shouldn't teach [book]. If they haven't read it and haven't a single legitimate idea for an alternative that might achieve similar pedagogical goals, please come back when you have that information. An example in a non-literary setting from my time in college. I had a political philosophy of the economy course in which we read Atlas Shrugged. Does it mean the prof endorsed it? No. Does it mean the Koch brothers were underwriting the class? No. It's a text that you have to read and consider, then argue with soberly. While we may want to consider it beneath consideration, it clearly matters to a lot of people and therefore cannot be ignored. I'd make the same argument for the Bible, a translated Qu'ran, and various literary and other cultural texts. That they are widely consumed means they are worthy of study. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Texsox Posted August 17, 2014 Share Posted August 17, 2014 In a perfect world a literature class would be a great place to discuss these issues, but the world of state standards says otherwise. Based on Common Core and every state requirements, discussing rape in a literature class is not an appropriate place or necessary. There are no standards that address this. With teacher evaluations increasingly relying on how well their students do on the state test, this sort of discussion is discouraged to a great degree. Sad but true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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