I had a bit of an epiphany last night… Lately I have become so engrossed in how to incorporate youth and popular culture into the classroom, I started to think about whether or not the incorporation of popular culture is always going to be a positive aspect within the classroom and school setting. I first started thinking this way when I was talking to a colleague at an academic library about this blog. Her initial reaction was one of complete and utter disagreement. Her jaw dropped to the ground and she uttered “but what about the classics?” She then started to extol the necessities of keeping English literature alive and ensuring that future generations actually know what “good literature” is. Twilight and Hunger Games were mentioned, stating how complete rubbish they were and how it is such a terrible shame that youth actually think these books are good. I must admit that I did to a certain degree agree with her. Having read Twilight, I actually wanted to go through with a red pen (it was however a library book) and correct grammatical errors along with several repeated lines that perhaps could have been reworded to make the Bella character more interesting, rather than constantly pining over Edward, but perhaps that is just me showing my age… However I also made the comment that whilst these books were perhaps not of the literary standard that she and I enjoy, they were successful in getting teenagers to read and actually be interested in the content.
After this conversation, I did however start to think that perhaps students should be reading the “classics” to help them gain a better understanding of the English language. Indeed I was extremely disappointed in high school when instead of reading Wuthering Heights or To Kill a Mockingbird, we instead had to read contemporary Australian novels. I had to secret away my addiction to Jane Austen the Bronte sisters and Gabriel García Márquez because it was definitely not cool to read novels like that. I also started to think that whilst it is important for students to be engaged at school and to enjoy their lessons, surely sometimes, they just have to do things for the sake of doing things. When students leave school, they can’t expect to always have fun at work and for their boss to always assign them with engaging tasks, so why is it that we have to come up with all these wiz bang lessons and content that they enjoy? I am not to say that they won’t enjoy reading the classics, I taught The Great Gatsby last year and most of the students thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel. However I don’t think we should be so eager to abandon all traditional teaching methods and content because sometimes students may just need to learn discipline and how to knuckle down even when they aren’t enjoying the subject…
After this conversation, I did however start to think that perhaps students should be reading the “classics” to help them gain a better understanding of the English language. Indeed I was extremely disappointed in high school when instead of reading Wuthering Heights or To Kill a Mockingbird, we instead had to read contemporary Australian novels. I had to secret away my addiction to Jane Austen the Bronte sisters and Gabriel García Márquez because it was definitely not cool to read novels like that. I also started to think that whilst it is important for students to be engaged at school and to enjoy their lessons, surely sometimes, they just have to do things for the sake of doing things. When students leave school, they can’t expect to always have fun at work and for their boss to always assign them with engaging tasks, so why is it that we have to come up with all these wiz bang lessons and content that they enjoy? I am not to say that they won’t enjoy reading the classics, I taught The Great Gatsby last year and most of the students thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel. However I don’t think we should be so eager to abandon all traditional teaching methods and content because sometimes students may just need to learn discipline and how to knuckle down even when they aren’t enjoying the subject…