required reading in schools is now torture?

[Eriksmasque]

I was browsing Amazon.com to see other peoples opinions of a book I had recently purchased that I read years and years ago. THe book was about the civil war, it's called " Across Five Aprils". I don't know if anyone on here ever read it. Its pretty interesting. THere are some slow parts just like in every other book,but its a good story. Anyway, one of the reviews was by a teenager Her review said " Don't read this book, its boring. I had to read it for school. I was a victim of forced reading." my thoughts when I read this were " Good luck with the rest of your life" Since when is Required reading for school torture?

Is it just me, or is the " up and coming " generation heading for problems... ( as is the rest of the world if they're the future). THoughts?

 

[Dussicar]

Every new generation is pretty much hurting worse than the last.

It started with generation-X (my generation) and keeps going on a downward slide from then on.

My generation was taught to defy authority. Not any REAL authority, mind you, but an imaginary ogre that was concocted by media demographics groups. So, in the end, you got a group of people in the ninties that thumbed their noses at nothing really in particular.

After them, there was the latchkey generation. Or, as I like to call them: The Vid-kid generation. These are the twentysomething kids are little white suburbanites that will (or have) taken jobs in the workforce that have either only half of the benefits that their parents (or even Gen-X) had to none at all. They work longer hours at less pay. Instead of getting angry or fighting for equality, they instead, throw some childish tantrum at anyone who has problems with tasteless video games or violent rap music (or metal, for that matter). Failing to realise that they tend to fall back on these items as an escape and effectively making the real world problems worse by default and complacency.

Is it any wonder that the generation after that is going to be more ass-backwards?

Things don't get better. They get worse when power is involved.

I'm reminded of a guy I know at work. I get along with him really well and he is fun to talk to but he is the living embodyment of everyone I have outlined here. He failes to understand that maybe-just maybe- the video game reviewer he just read up on with the three-toned frosted hair, horn rimmed glasses, and acerbic wit does NOT have his best interests or well being in mind when it comes to his "freedom." Every thing he says at one point or another about what is "really" going on with society can usually be traced back to some videogame magazine or other corporate sponsored organization. In many cases, he latches on to it with an absolute fanatical zeal...Needless to say, we have had our share of screaming matches in the past.

Hell, I've tripped across some gloriously idiotic statements from various vid-kids and Gen-Xers on this forum, literally oozing with subconcious corporate influence while disgused as "the truth" or taking the "dumbasses to school."

But I keep forgetting...Everybody is an idiot but them.

Because their video games told them so...🙄

 

[PBL]

Anyway, one of the reviews was by a teenager Her review said " Don't read this book, its boring. I had to read it for school. I was a victim of forced reading." my thoughts when I read this were " Good luck with the rest of your life" Since when is Required reading for school torture?

I think that you will find that if you took a time machine and visited schools throughout the past that you would hear kids complaining about reading assignments and even *gasp* referring to it as torture. The only difference now is that you happen to come across this kid's venting online.

Is it just me, or is the " up and coming " generation heading for problems... ( as is the rest of the world if they're the future). THoughts?

Maybe, I doubt it, but I certainly wouldn't consider this episode as evidence for that idea.

 

[Dr. Vollin]

I think that you will find that if you took a time machine and visited schools throughout the past that you would hear kids complaining about reading assignments and even *gasp* referring to it as torture. The only difference now is that you happen to come across this kid's venting online.

That sums it up nicely.

 

[aurora5150]

when i was in high school i enjoyed most of our required readingexcept for a couple books here and there that i thought were torture to read. i think it's more the subject of the book than anything.

 

[simulated]

I believe it came out recently that 25% of Americans didn't read a single book last year.

 

[Saeria]

I seriously dig a good book but all the same i was about ready to gouge out my own spleen with a wet pine stick just to get out of having to finish "The Grapes of Wrath" (or really any steinbeck in highschool) in Junior AP English. I think it's all a matter of taste.

 

[Strider]

My 11th grade english teacher was amazingly up front in his belief that a good deal of works that often fall under the required reading category were actually flaming pieces of shit.

 

[CitY of MicA]

When I first saw the title of this thread, I thought it was in reference to a book about torture being required reading in schools 😛 . High school kids obviously can have highly developed personalities and thus very different tastes; they can be just as opinionated as adults. I would imagine most people were forced to reading something in school that they really found tedious. Maybe this was junior high for me, but I can remember laboring through Chaim Potok's The Chosen and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (one lifetime, as it were - thank goodness it wasn't a week in the life of Ivan 😱 ...). If memory serves, One Day was a recounting of life for a prisoner in a labor camp in Siberia, so it might not appeal to everyone if not for the requirement. I had one high school English teacher who allowed us to select a novel every month from 4 or 5 different choices, arranged around specific themes. I really enjoyed some of the books I read in that class, but I wasn't forced to choose The Chosen .