Reading material for teens... guidelines?

[laptop]

You couldn't get an english degree only reading fluffy fiction FFS dude.

I thought about that. Perhaps "fluffy" was a bit loose. I was including Beowulf

Betcha could get an English degree and a year later not know anything of (non-literary) history 1914-1968.

And it doesn't have to have been an English degree. It could have been media studies... or PE!

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

this reminds me when i got in trouble in primary school for reading salman rushdie

if the kid can read it let the read it...

unless it's the anerchists cook book or summin it's not going to do much harm

 

[Cloo]

'Racial issues'?! It's not as if he were reading Mein Kampf.

 

[Bob_the_lost]

'Racial issues'?! It's not as if he were reading Mein Kampf.

Send him in with that next week.

 

[equationgirl]

oh come on! I've never been formally taught anything about history from 1900 onwards, yet I have a basic knowledge of key events of the 20th century.

But I like the 'mein kampf' idea. How about 'To kill a mockingbird' too? or 'The colour purple', just for good measure.

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

ohh throw in the communist manifesto too as a laugh

A spectre is haunting your reading list!

 

[Cid]

I'd get him to go for Nietzsche followed up with a bit of futurism...

But really, if they want him to read fiction, get him some good stuff like Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy or some of the darker sci-fi (Alfred Bester's Tiger Tiger aka The stars my destination might be nice). For real controvesy why not Arthur C Clarkes the god's themselves.


However, I think you could trump all of these with a nice big extract from Fear and Loathing.

 

[bluestreak]

I thought about that. Perhaps "fluffy" was a bit loose. I was including Beowulf

Betcha could get an English degree and a year later not know anything of (non-literary) history 1914-1968.

And it doesn't have to have been an English degree. It could have been media studies... or PE!

it is very unlikely that most universities would accept a student for an english pgce without a relevant degree subject.

seriously. i've been there, i know what i'm talking about. at a half decent uni even the english grads will find it hard.

the thing about english degrees is that you need english a levels to study them. a significant portion of people with english a levels also studied other humanities - it's very rare to have done, say english maths and physics. history and politics were pretty much standard amongst those i did my pgce with.

not impossible i guess, just doesn't ring true. a lot of thigns would have to be wrong i thing for a post-graduate level adult to not have even heard of MLK.

 

[laptop]

How fictional do they want?

Almost anything by Jorge Luis Borges - but since the row is about books I'd recommend "The Library of Babel", "The Book of Sand" - or "The Garden of Forking Paths" (at least the first and third are in the collection Labrynths).

Or if you can find a copy of Stanislaw Lem's A Perfect Vacuum... as fictional as fiction gets, mind-blowing philosophical speculation... I might even lend you my copy if you promise a photo of the look on teacher's face

All these are very short stories - some short enough to read out in class in full, I guess - that'll have him thinking for a month each.

And very very mean to teacher

If he doesn't understand them, say the whole point is that they're stories about things that no-one understands - and he'll do well to re-read them every 10 years.