Anonymous Patron wrote in with a USA Today editorial against bad textbooks.
There’s some good points about state-approved texts and bland readings, plus some speculation about the health risks of carrying heavy books.
But is attempting a classical education really to blame for illiteracy? Isn’t that like blaming vegetables for obesity?
Perhaps something more in-tune with the current tone of political discourse, say like the L.A. Math Test, would be a better approach? Or does Dewey have the answer?
Alcoholic Vampires
(best subject ever)
I’ve always questioned the “reading is reading” idea, that is, I’ve always wondered if reading Manga is the same as reading Shakespear. I guess it can be a kind of “gateway drug” where Manga leads to something more, uh, gooder, and eventually a kid starts to enjoy reading just about anything.
Does this actually happen though? Am I a snob because I think Manga doesn’t really count? I’ve never read anything (irony) on this topic, wich is why I ask.
Re:Alcoholic Vampires
In terms of just literacy then yes manga is as good as anything else. If learning how to read is all that matters then anything will do. And we do probably have a more literate and educated society because of the almost infinite amount of reading material out there in an almost infinite number of styles.
In terms of intelligence? Actual amping of brain power? No. I’ve read thousands of comics and while the focus has gotten more mature over the years you would still have to read those thousands of comics to equal the reading of a Shakespeare, Dickens, Jefferson, et al.
That doesn’t just apply to manga or comics either. 99% of what’s out there, fiction and nonfiction, is nothing but brain sugar.
Re:Alcoholic Vampires
Thinking of comics as a “gateway drug” to other things tends to bug me. Some comics can be very complex, even if many of them are pure entertainment.
Do people need to read Shakespeare for fun? Or is it just enough to read for fun?
Re:Alcoholic Vampires
I have never been a fan of Manga but read and enjoy comic/graphic novels very much. I think they can be used as a ‘gateway drug’ to get kids interested in other things. I know it’s a stretch but in many instances comics are just a little more sophicated picture books. I think they have the potiental to be much more and they are getting more mature. Look at MAUS and Persepolis.
I have to say though that by using these bulkly collections that only give a few pages of a book doesn’t do a novel any justice. I remember reading entire novels in high school. I’m only 23 so it wasn’t that long ago. We did have a text books but they contained entire Shakespeare plays and poetry collections.
Teachers and students are getting the short end of the stick these days because they have to teach for those standardized tests where you need to know authors x,y and z. It doesn’t give them any context but the students read the ‘important’ passages so that they can identify them on a test. It’s really a shame.
that’s just my two cents.
Re:Alcoholic Vampires
What about graphic novel versions of things like Shakespeare and Dickens? I recall we had a graphic novel version of “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Last of the Mohicans” that we had to read in junior high. Not sure that it was more or less educational an experience but they probably got read a bit more than the originals would have.
Required reading
I don’t know. I hated a lot of the assigned readings in school but I loved to read on my own. I think it was more the “assigned” thing that got me rather than the “reading.” I hated being told what I should be getting out of the works I was reading. By high school I was just reading the Cliffs Notes since I never saw the imagery or themes that I was being tested on. To this day I haven’t read the Odyssey, Iliad, Great Gatsby, Scarlet Letter and a handful of other classics. It was just too frustrating to take the tests and get marked down because I didn’t clearly understand that Odysseus’ shield was a symbol of the isolation of Greece or whatever fool crap. Once I got to college and we actually discussed what we read and didn’t just take the AP/SAT model tests, I started to enjoy class assignments a lot more.
Re:Alcoholic Vampires
” What about graphic novel versions of things like Shakespeare and Dickens? I recall we had a graphic novel version of “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Last of the Mohicans” that we had to read in junior high. Not sure that it was more or less educational an experience but they probably got read a bit more than the originals would have.”
It might make it easier to pass tests (which I’m not necessarily against) but the bottom line is if a student ever wants to be more then simply average then they will need to sit down for long periods of time and read old boring books.
Its worth noting that usually the best writers of comics, sci-fi, and tv are those who have read such books and sprinkle their own works with bits of the old stuff.