My first and only F well in hand, the illusion I had of myself - that of a pristine jarred brain casting aspersions on greasy, cavorting bipeds - was obliterated. I was enrolled, then, in a series of what were (and may still be called) "bonehead" classes, which was apparently where they hoarded all the Twain. And I Am The Cheese, and Watership Down, books that played with modern language and perspective and voice, and played rough. There's really no doubt that my entire life turned on that point, and it never really stopped turning: the point at which Writing became decoupled from English.
4/13/11
Why do the AP classes focus on the least useful texts?
I have no idea, but I'm glad that I'm not the only one who thinks so. Penny Arcade Tycho writes about his own experience surviving his expulsion from the smart kid lit classes, where they were "reading" Ulysses:
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I would add: "Why can't some schools figure out the importance of vertical curriculum alignment and stick to it?" Four years of high school Honors English classes involved a sad number of duplicates including Romeo and Juliet (grades 9 and 11) and Julius Caesar (grades 11 and 12). Mostly great teachers, definitely poor meta-planning which shouldn't have been a problem for a one-high-school district with only about 5-6 English teachers. (As for AP English, that was only offered to Seniors and ceased to exist at all by the time I was a Senior.) What's my point? I have no idea...just inspired to share.
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