Friday, February 26, 2010

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.

Current book: Orlando
Pages read: None

Oh, oops. It's late. I didn't read and don't really have a recap for the week.

Instead, a poll: does the literary canon have more of a right to be taught in schools than anything else? In other words, is there any real reason to stick to the canon aside from earning a set of shared cultural information? Assuming that there's new literature that's being produced that is as good as the old, why not allow teachers to teach that, instead?

1 comment:

  1. I think teachers are already doing that. I know Aunt Trish adds in new novels on a regular basis and combines those with the old standards. I think a mix of both is the best way to go. I do realize that everyone who is widely read will have a "Top 100" list that is semi-unique, but if you looked at a random sample of those lists you'd see a selection of repeaters.

    ReplyDelete

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