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Reading is good for you...
We just started a school wide reading program at the high school where I teach. After much deliberation and a little library luck, we decided on Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game as a good first book for what we knew would be a resistant group of teenagers. But, oh mylanta (I know, it's so goofy, it's cool) I wasn't prepared for the maelstrom. Here is a litany of some of the complaints: "It's Science Fiction!" "It has swear words!" "I don't understand it!" "It's too easy." "This is stupid (retarded, gay, dumb, boring, etc)!" "It's a religious book!" Okay, now I have to pause and just take a little umbrage on this silly last statement. Ender's Game is a science fiction book that takes place in a quasi-dystopia society where government extends control to things such as family size and religion. Can I make something clear? Just because one says the word "religion" in a book, doesn't mean that the book is religious. I've gotten so cranky over the incessant whining that I resort to saying "Suck it up!" to all whiners. I think I'm going to make my students read the book twice; that'll teach 'em.
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7 comments:
Linne, I can't believe you are experiencing such resistance. Picking ENDER'S GAME was just brilliant! I handed that book to Jess to read when he was in high school and he just fell in love with it. We have been Card fans for years!
I think they will come around. Don't teens just like to protest for the act of protesting! Wait 'til they get to SPEAKER FOR THE DEAD. Now that was weird!
You go, Linnie-girl! You are unstoppable. A juggernaut.
Rick
But the issue is not just teen-agers whining, it is the parents who are angry at the school for forcing their kids to read a particular book -- as one parent felt that if her daughter were bored after reading only 10 pages, obviously it was a bad book, the school was wrong to force it, and besides, Linne is Mormon, so it must be a religious book intended to manipulate their child.
This is what I love about the politics of "leave no child behind" -- if the public schools are blatantly bad and doing America's youth a disservice, and the public schools must be compelled to change -- then why is it that it is the kids and the parents who resist if the schools should ever try to increase standards or expectations with something so controversial as to try to encourage students to read more by selecting a book for the entire student body to read together!
Linne -- hang in there, and don't let 'em get you down!
Kim
Ender's Game is one of my all-time favorites...such an amazing story. I wish your students understood what a "novel" book it is, definitely at the head of its genre(s)...young adult and science fiction. Maybe telling them there's a movie in production will give them a little motivation?
I need to go the land of skin toughening so the complaints cease to bother me. I asked my 12th graders to respond in their journals about how students seem to be disrespectful to female teachers. They seem to think women are too sensitive. Well, they will never see me cry! ( to quote Jane Fonda in Cat Balou)
I have read that book four times now! never ceases to amaze me! Your students need to start reading and quit the video games. ha ha
I know!!! Ender's Game is a great book. It is like being upset with Dr. Suess. Yippee, we get to read in class tomorrow - let the whining begin.
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