SHAME! SHAME! LET CHILDREN READ BOOKS!
The philistine supremacy in schools (and at Netflix)
The new curriculum removes all full-length novels from the 8th grade curriculum. Previously, Deal 8th graders read challenging and thoughtful novels like To Kill a Mockingbird and A Raisin in the Sun. The rationale for this change is that the old curriculum was cobbled together through trial and error by Deal’s English teachers and the new curriculum, which focuses on short passages, will better prepare the students for high school.
The philistine supremacy has really clasped its cold dead hand around the school system when 13 year olds aren’t expected to read an entire book. There are no good excuses for this. I hear this all the time from other parents, by the way.
Shame! Shame! Shame on all the people making these decisions! We are talking about children for God’s sake.
LET CHILDREN READ BOOKS!
Talking of the philistine supremacy, here’s what the CEO of Netflix had to say in a recent interview about why watching movies on the small screen is merely a matter of personal preference.
I guess I’m thinking of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” Are there things that just don’t feel like they’re in your wheelhouse right now? Both of those movies would be great for Netflix. They definitely would have enjoyed just as big an audience on Netflix. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to believe that certain kinds of movies do or don’t work. There’s no reason to believe that the movie itself is better in any size of screen for all people. My son’s an editor. He is 28 years old, and he watched “Lawrence of Arabia” on his phone.
Oh, no. But it is just an interesting thing. At every new development of technology, there’s wins for the audience.
I have nothing to say in response to this gross philistinism other than: please, please, do go and see great movies on the big screen. It’s incomparable. Telling people that the small screen is purely a matter of personal preference is a lie. Sure, watch on your TV or your laptop, but also sometimes go to the big screen. See the art as it was made to be seen.
People claiming thirteen-year-olds can't be expected to read an entire book clearly haven't encountered middle-schoolers. Your ability to focus and to chew through books is basically unparalleled at that age. Yes, not every kid is going to like reading (that's true in any cohort), but it's insane to claim that none of them does, or even that most of them don't, and especially insane to claim that that should guide educational policy.
And also, Mister Netflix CEO, not to sound like a boomer, but watching Lawrence of Arabia or 2001: A Space Odyssey on your phone screen is only 'a matter of preference' if your 'preference' is for an objectively worse experience.
(I understand that sometimes there are accessibility issues that make watching films at home easier, but that is an argument for greater accessibility of the big screen, not fewer big screens).
A Raisin in the Sun is a play not a novel.
I mean certainly I agree with you that taking novels off the curriculum is a terrible idea.
I read A Raisin the Sun in 7th or 8th grade; I don't think I've ever actually seen it performed but reading it was excellent, as also To Kill a Mockingbird, read around the same time.