However, McLeroy said he directed a group of experts to add examples of "good literature" to the list. He said students should spend their time in English class learning English and reading literature that will help prepare them for college.
"What good does it do to put a Chinese story in an English book?" he said. "You learn all these Chinese words, OK. That's not going to help you master ... English. So you really don't want Chinese books with a bunch of crazy Chinese words in them. Why should you take a child's time trying to learn a word that they'll never ever use again?"
He added that some words — such as chow mein — might be useful.
Thank you, sir for your wise words. You're a great example for my children of a mature respectful adult.I particularly like a quotation they included from the great poet, Sandra Cisneros:
Tyroff said missing from the list is local author Sandra Cisneros' book "House on Mango Street." However, Cisneros said Friday she doesn't think there should be a recommended list at all. Instead, educators should choose books to which students can relate.
"I feel it's just important that we select books that might speak to young people at whatever age that reader is," Cisneros said. "A lot of times, people who aren't used to books aren't going to read ... books that they find intimidating."
Anyway, just thought i'd post that (saw it on angry asian man) since we were talking about "canon" and what is considered "greatest hits," etc. I think this up what the Board feels is the purpose of education.
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Well now, Mary Rose, we've just hit the tip of the 1980s Culture Wars iceberg and those who consciously perpetuate the underlying structures of institutionalized racism, sexism, and all the other -isms. Notice that in the book, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, there is not a single Asian American author (although there are Asians to substitute in) and the works of African American authors are discussed only in terms of aesthetics and not the potentially disruptive politics that their writings embody.
To sum it up shortly, the Culture Wars in terms of the canon were that the Left felt that the canon needed to reflect a diversity of voices while the Right felt that the purity of literary tradition was being damaged in the process.
This then asks questions regarding why people read. Given that we're in the digital age, in which film and TV and new media are much more popular storytelling devices, I think that ways of teaching high school literature have not made reading relevant. While it's important to read, say, Great Expectations, should it be one of the only 15-20 serious works of literature that high school graduates need to be informed citizens? I personally got much more from To Kill A Mockingbird, which didn't do nearly as much for me as Louise Erdrich's Tracks.
This then leads into questions of how people read literature. I love A House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek, but there are dangers involved with canonizing them, that Cisneros' work will come to stand for all Chicano/Latino experiences. Should students read these books? Yes. Should teachers be trained to be sensitive to how they teach students? Yes, very much.
It still amazes me that deviating from the canon is seen as being subversive. And given the inertia of the public education curriculum, I suppose it is. Just look at the Freedom Writers and the protagonist's elevation to Civil Rights hero. Which she is, in many ways.
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