Post by novastar6 on Jun 10, 2018 6:55:18 GMT
A lot of the same classic books have been taught in schools over and over and over practically since some of them were published. And while I have no doubt that many benefit from reading Of Mice and Men and Animal Farm and The Diary of Anne Frank, etc., I really think the kind of reading that is taught across the country, needs to be shaken up.
So what books if you could, would you make mandatory reading in schools, that you think will benefit the readers?
Fahrenheit 451, I know it is mandatory in a lot of schools, but it has also been given the short end of the stick many times over the years and there are still a lot of people who have never heard of it, let alone read it. My own experience, this book, pretty much literally overnight turned me from a very rigid, narrow minded reader that I only read what I liked, wouldn't touch classic literature, etc., started to make me think, and made me seek out these books I wouldn't have ever touched with a 10 foot pole, wondering for the first time, what was in them, what made them classics?
And to follow it up, A Pleasure to Burn, the short stories that inspired and were extensions of ideas from Fahrenheit 451.
The Boys Who Challenged Hitler by Phillip Hoose and Knud Pedersen, the real life story of a group of 12 and 13 year old boys in Denmark who when they saw the Nazis invading, and the adults offer little to no resistance, took matters into their own hands in the name of patriotism, and declared war on the Nazis, and risked their very lives to do it. That would make a very nice addition to history class, teach them about a part of history that is not generally covered, show them what kids their own ages have been capable of, and willing to risk, in years past.
Having Our Say, by the Delaney sisters, Sadie and Bessie, who respectively lived to be 105 and 108, and talk about their experiences over a century, and their family history. Another good one for history. A family where the father was born a slave, went on to college, become the first black Episcopalian reverend, got married to a college educated woman, had 10 kids, all of them worked their way to higher education, and the two featured in the book made history as the second black woman dentist in New York, and the first black teacher at an all white school.
The Anatomy of Motive by John E. Douglas, former FBI criminal profiler. Not exactly sure which class it would fit in, but it should definitely be mandatory, teach kids about sociopaths and what the warning signs are and how to know if they're actually involved with any.
The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker, likewise teaches kids how criminals and nutjobs think, how their minds work, what drives them, and what to and not to do if you encounter one, and why 'traditional' routes of dealing with them don't work and often get people killed instead.
Crisis of Character by Gary J. Byrne, let the kids know who the woman REALLY is that some of their parents voted for and see how much they'd really want her running the country.
The Klan Unmasked by Stetson Kennedy. A real life adventure story about the life and death struggle between good and evil that Hollywood itself couldn't improve upon by one scintilla even if they tried.
The Wave by Todd Strasser, I know, again, I know, it is required reading for many places, but in light of current events, evidently it's not taught to enough classes based on how many young people today just blindly go along with the group and for all intents and purposes are unable to think for themselves.
Zlata's Diary. Is that required for anybody? I would have it taught back to back with The Diary of Anne Frank, shows just how little things can change in 50 years.
And I would have both accompany another book that I know is taught to many, but still, The Freedom Writers Diary, put those three together and you really have something then.
McTeague, by Frank Norris, the infamous eternally incomplete silent movie, Greed, here's the story that made the movie about 3 people's lives ruined by the winning of a lottery, and I can't define it, but there is a certain quality to the book that just screams 'classic high school literature material'.
The State Boys Rebellion, give today's generation a good idea of what used to happen to any kids who were deemed racially or socially or economically or intellectually inferior. A nice chunk of our own history in eugenics, much as we would love to bury that part of our past, we can't afford to forget it.
703: How I Lost More than a Quarter Ton and Gained a Life by Nancy Makin, the woman who did in fact once upon a time happen to be the title weight, 703 pounds. Fat acceptance? Not by a long shot, instead this is the true story of a woman who had been to hell since she was a child, and found her way back and in the process shed over 500 pounds, with NO surgery, NO diets, NO weight loss supplements, just a newfound sense of worth and friends. Given most people who will be in the same eventual position she was, are already halfway there by the time they're in high school, it would be an exercise in prevention by spreading awareness of how it happens and how to overcome it, and it would be far easier to figure the latter out at 15-16 than at 30-40.
Reset Your Child's Brain by Dr. Victoria Dunckley. It's nothing at all for all kids to think of life glued to a screen as completely normal, fine, harmless, beneficial, etc., because it's all they've ever known, instead of just blindly abiding by what the manufacturer's paid studies say about the necessity of tech as early on in children's lives as is possible, let's let them see what the real experts are saying. For related reading, Cyber Junkie by Kevin Roberts, a man who lived through video game addiction for 20+ years, The Winter of Our Disconnect by Susan Maushart, who subjected herself and her kids to a 6 month screen-free experiment, and Unplugged by Orianna Fielding.
Edit: Also, Moron Corp by John L. Professor Ward, and McNamara's Folly by Gregory Hamilton. A particularly dark chapter in those dark days of the Vietnam War, and a very dark discovery about that wonderful American government of ours we're expected to trust so much.
