{"id":136,"date":"2012-11-21T00:33:03","date_gmt":"2012-11-21T00:33:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/?p=136"},"modified":"2015-09-08T21:27:29","modified_gmt":"2015-09-08T21:27:29","slug":"something-they-can-use-in-real-life-the-case-for-literature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/2012\/11\/21\/something-they-can-use-in-real-life-the-case-for-literature\/","title":{"rendered":"Something they can use in ‘real life’: The Case for Literature"},"content":{"rendered":"

As parents, teachers and students prepared for a new academic year, The Star<\/em> published an article, written by Michael Reist, titled \u201cLiterature is the new Latin<\/a>\u201d.\u00a0 Reist has 30 years of teaching under his belt and is the author of two books.<\/p>\n

Under the large image of a smart phone with apps magically appearing and falling onto a glowing screen the caption below it reads, \u201cWho needs novels when the smartphone has brought all of cyberspace into the palm of one hand?\u201d.<\/p>\n

No, Reist is not being sarcastic. His claim is not satirical. He is deadly serious about the death of print and the rise of the pixel.<\/p>\n

Reist claims that in today\u2019s classroom, \u201creading literature means reading what the book\u2019s about.\u201d Reist argues that for those who have been raised with the Internet, literature has a boring format.\u00a0 There are no pictures, apps, sound effects, and no matter how you reformat it, you are stuck with thousands of words on hundreds of pages.\u00a0 \u201cWhat could be more boring?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n

For Reist, print is already dead.\u00a0 He regards senior level English courses as arbitrary prerequisites, stemming from a one-size-fits-all model of teaching and learning.\u00a0 He suggests making Grade 11 and 12 English courses optional, for the \u201cstudents who value [literature]\u201d. \u00a0He claims he has heard the teenage masses speak and what they want is something that they can use in real life. <\/em>He cites one of his Grade 10 students as a member of this united generational voice:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m going to be a video game designer! I don\u2019t need to be able to read novels or write essays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerned with an English teacher\u2019s claim that literature is dead and that its value and worth rest solely in its ability to sustain any reader\u2019s attention, I decided to present Reist\u2019s article to my Grade 11 English students, to see if, in fact, they too felt that literature was more effort than it was worth. Here is what they had to say:<\/p>\n

Michael Reist\u2019s thesis in his article \u201cLiterature is the New Latin\u201d is extremely demotivating to my generation. I view the appreciation of literature as something that one has to acquire, and not something that comes with the blink of an eye. Many children seem to appreciate having stories read to them at a young age, but lose interest in these stories when they have to read them themselves. I would argue that this is derived from laziness, which, in a world where one\u2019s phone can type out dictated text messages for those too lazy to type, is increasing. However, why I believe literature is so important and is not dying is because it gives an exciting and stimulating alternative to our innate laziness. As opposed to long and tedious chores, literature provides an exciting opening into a world other than our own, for us to appreciate and learn from. I believe this kind of stimulation, which requires focus for an extensive time and deep analytical thinking, is so vital to our generation, as our attention span is drastically decreasing. I hope that contrary to what Michael Reist argues, our school system continues to emphasize literature, as, in a world which now moves at such a rapid pace, the skills literature provides us, in terms of extensive focus and deeper thought and understanding, are far more rare, and therefore advantageous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another student responded with:<\/p>\n

I have a neutral feeling when it comes to literature because my interests are very diverse when it comes to the subject.\u00a0 For example, there are certain books that I would be happy to read, and then do an extended study on.\u00a0 But, there are others that I dislike with a passion. \u00a0I for one would enjoy taking a literature course a lot more if I were allowed to choose which books I wanted to read (which I have done).<\/p>\n

All in all, I am glad for the opportunity to remove myself from the presence of a screen and enhance my mind with some well-written books.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here is my response to Reist\u2019s proposal to change required senior level English courses into elective courses for those who are interested.<\/p>\n

Why study English?<\/p>\n

I will start with a story:<\/p>\n

The other day I read an article on the BBC website<\/a> that declared the vessel that had inspired Herman Meville had been discovered off the coast of Hawaii.\u00a0 Fascinated with the sea and the secrets that it keeps, I pulled my dusty copy of Moby Dick<\/em> from my bookshelf and began to reread the whale\u2019s tale.\u00a0 I was struck by the bright streams of turquoise and magenta as I read the passages I had highlighted and marked fifteen years ago when I first read the leviathan novel.\u00a0 How I love retracing the notes and lines scribbled in the margins of books I loved when I was young.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if I am reading a diary, or studying a found photograph, forgotten within the pages of a book and only now recently surfacing.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if I am reading letters written to myself about the things that resonated deeply with me when I was young, a reminder, almost, or a rally cry, perhaps, to not forget why these passages were important.<\/p>\n

They were not highlighted necessarily because of their import to the narrative, or because they were exemplary of some literary or poetic device, but rather because in them, there was me.\u00a0 These passages connected me to something more, to something I felt I had always known, but perhaps had never articulated aloud or even consciously noted in myself.<\/p>\n

The passages are reminders of my curiosity and I am relieved to discover that I could appreciate beauty and celebrate it, even back then.\u00a0 It is as though I am standing outside of myself and seeing myself as a separate being.\u00a0 And liking what I see.<\/p>\n

Literature can do that.<\/p>\n

Why study English?\u00a0 Because English is the closest we can get to understanding who we are, and why that matters.\u00a0 Because through the stories of others we are presented with a roadmap leading back to our own beginnings, to what is familiar and profound about our beings.\u00a0 Because science can only take us so far, because the human heart defies logic, because we are always under our constant state of becoming, because English shows us what it means to be human.\u00a0 It reminds us.\u00a0 Of what we already know. And perhaps have forgotten, or maybe neglected.<\/p>\n

I could tell you that story-telling was our first education. That oral tradition of story-telling can be found in most cultures and civilizations, that it was used to explain our origins, to sway masses to believe that the \u2018Other\u2019 was evil, to convince and persuade, to show and to communicate.\u00a0 That gravity is best understood by the story of Newton\u2019s apple, that landing on the moon can be understood by the metaphor of a footstep.<\/p>\n

The study of English allows us, and shows us how, to be still, to see without telescopes and microscopes, but with words.\u00a0 Words.\u00a0 Words that can bridge and sever, build and destroy, blind and reveal to us how to see the beauty and the burden of being human.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As parents, teachers and students prepared for a new academic year, The Star published an article, written by Michael Reist, titled \u201cLiterature is the new Latin\u201d.\u00a0 Reist has 30 years of teaching under his belt and is the author of two books. Under the large image of a smart phone with apps magically appearing and … Continue reading “Something they can use in ‘real life’: The Case for Literature”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,41],"tags":[14,19,22,18],"class_list":["post-136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action-plan","category-defense-of-literature","tag-21st-century-syllabus","tag-curriculum","tag-english","tag-literature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/shelleythomas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}