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…
|