A specific work I can remember from English class is "Success is Counted Sweetest" by Emily Dickinson. Long story short, the meaning is that people who don't have certain things know the things better than those who have them. Meanwhile, the song "Let Her Go" by Passenger expresses the exact same concept through a medium that teenagers, the people required to take the classes, actually care about and would listen to. Sure, in many cases, there aren't many options to express certain points, but why is it that we haven't looked at a single thing written within the last forty years? People haven't stopped making art or writing books, so why have the programs stopped being updated with the times?
2. Lacking Types of Works
Actually, we haven't ever gone over any songs in English class. It's not like they're written in French or Chinese, and a lot of the time they have some interesting points. Admittedly, I am a fan of 80's music, so my first specific thought for this was "You Can Call Me Al" by Paul Simon. He made the song in direct violation of the UN's attempts to prevent the spread of culture from South Africa during Apartheid, and the song very clearly has meaning. A newer example, "Little Talks" (one of those "know it when you hear it" songs) might or might not tell the story of a woman slowly losing her memories. The exact notes of a song don't usually need looked at to understand its meaning. I won't go into detail on TV shows or movies, but some things are better expressed in these mediums. A character's facial expression is worth a thousand words describing how they feel.
3. Teaching That Compromise is Bad
Students usually think mock trials and debates are the most fun (or at least interesting) parts of class, but even these hold some massive issues. These teach students that the way to figure out the best solution to a problem is not by calm compromise, but by using various methods of propaganda and loud voices to "prove" that their point is correct. This is what congressmen do right now, and it obviously does not work. At all. Being the more persuasive speaker shouldn't matter, working out problems in a way that actually works should. Even in essays, students frequently have to pick one side of an argument and ignore the negatives of that side instead of trying to fix them.
4. Massive Differences Between Teaching Levels
Though this may only occur at some schools, it remains a massive issue (and I've accepted that this blog likely won't become massively famous in the future). As someone who has tutored various people in various classes, I feel justified in saying that the difference between honors and other levels of English classes seems massive compared to other classes. Where the difference between my current math class and the Level II classes is around a month's worth of materials, and history classes simply seem less in-depth at lower levels, proofreading essays for lower levels feels like I'm looking at essays from people who skipped entire years of school (I've read essays from younger honors students and from fairly dedicated level two students). The worst part is that even considering this, guidance doesn't seem to have anyone looking for tutors in English. In addition, I've never seen any Level II students win any essay competitions, in all seven years I've known about them (though again, ). The readings different levels do vary massively; the level two class reads books in ninth grade that honors students don't read until much later, and vice versa. This likely has some explanation, but if so no one has ever told me what it is.
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