Unpop Opinions

[Ksandra]

How’re teachers handling N-word Jim these days? Serious question. When I read it in middle school the teacher gave us a talk of how it was the common vernacular of the time and we should treat it as that. Didn’t make any waves in my classes that I remember, and my school was like 70% black.

I think it depends year to year on the students. If I taught Huck Finn to my 9th graders three years ago, I probably could have had them read it with maturity.

My current 9th graders say the n***a word like no tomorrow, and none of them are black. I'd probably have them stick to just saying "N-Word" just to start teaching them that it's not ok to just be blasting it every five seconds.


Yet another reason I think these kids need a dose of reality as to why it's such a charged word in the first place.

[Ksandra]

I actually don't think I ever read Catcher in the Rye. Somehow I missed that in school, and I never felt the need to read it.



My 9th grade year was nuts compared to what these kids get. I read in 9th grade:

Huckleberry Finn
The Red Badge of Courage
Billy Budd
The Scarlet Letter
My Brother Sam is Dead
Pride and Prejudice
Wuthering Heights
Romeo and Juliet
A Raisin in the Sun
A Streetcar Named Desire
And a fuckton of short stories like "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" etc.

Some schools still attempt to be like this. But in the era of "no homework" it's impossible to get a good amount in.


Thankfully, I have finally after three years convinced my boss to get Reading Counts. Kids will now have to read one book a month at their lexile level outside of class. Because they just don't get enough reading in otherwise.

[Ksandra]

Oh wait, Wuthering Heights and P&P were tenth grade, my bad. 9th was A Tale of Two Cities.

[Koyangi]

Seeing you all talking about books read in English class reminded me of Thug Notes. It is hilarious, check it out on Youtube.

[Demosthenes]

You still got fans til this day trying to pretend TLJ was anything other than fucking terrible.

Star wars is a pile of shit, TLJ is literally the best thing they ever spit out.

[Fondue]

THE STARS MY DESTINATION

[Cantih]

I actually don't think I ever read Catcher in the Rye. Somehow I missed that in school, and I never felt the need to read it.

My opinion on the matter is Catcher in the Rye is the worst fucking book you can give to a teenager.
Like, Austen, Bronte, Shakespeare, and Homer can be dry and boring if you can't get over it or it's not in your genre.
But Holden is the worst fucking role model that inspires too many goddamn people.

[Day]

Is anyone really inspired by holden?

[Cantih]

You've got no fucking idea.

[Rhyis.]

growing up i thought catcher was the stupidest book i ever read

[Xno Kappa]

I just remember the teacher going on and on about symbolism and I’m like “Yo! The nigga is a huge bitch! What the fuck am I missing here?”

[Rhyis.]

i believe i expressed that exact statement to my english teacher at the time

[Anoat]

In high school I remember reading
1984
Fahrenheit 451
The Heart or Darkness
Othello
The Scarlet Letter
All Quiet On The Western Front
The Odyssey
The Color Purple
To Kill A Mockingbird

And a bunch of short stories like
The Yellow Wallpaper
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
The Cask of Amontillado

But mostly I was trying to get to second base with chicks in a field party on Friday nights.

[Cail]

I was never good in English class so I dont remember much of it.

I do remember Of Mice and Men, Scarlett Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird, Hamlet, Raisin in the Sun, Streetcar Named Desire.

I'm sure there was much more, due to 4 years of HS but that's all I remember

[Ksandra]

I would love to teach Of Mice and Men.


There’s always that one kid that ruins it for the rest, though.

[Abandon]

none of yall read Great Expectations?

[Ksandra]

none of yall read Great Expectations?

I did in 11th

[Cail]

I would love to teach Of Mice and Men.


There’s always that one kid that ruins it for the rest, though.

I remember that one always. My 10th grade teacher taught it and would read it in class and do voices for the characters.

[Gredival]

My SO's niece is reading Hunger Games in English instead of the 1984/BNW/Fahrenheit-451 core. I said that was fucking stupid. Her father got mad at me (because he's a fan of the books). I said that the books are fine casual reading for a girl her age, but that you can't just plug in Hunger Games as a replacement for hallmark English language dystopian fiction because it has an authoritarian government. In HG it's just the world setting for a story that is mostly character driven. The focus on the love triangle has no terminal thematic payoff the same way it does in 1984 where everything comes back to fear and control. He got offended and said that we can't get caught up with how things were taught like when we were in school and common core math is different too.

[Gredival]

9th - Catcher in the Rye, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Fahrenheit 451, Lord of the Flies, The Belljar, The Iliad, Romeo and Juliet
10th - Huck Finn, The Great Gatsby, The Sun Also Rises, The Odyssey, Oedipus Rex, King Lear, Macbeth
11th - 1984, Brave New World, The Grapes of Wrath, Walden, The Turn of the Screw, The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglass, Nat Turner's Slave Rebellion, Othello, Hamlet
12th - The Heart of Darkness, Oryx and Crake, The Tortilla Curtain, The Sound and the Fury, The Things They Carried, The Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Death of a Salesman