'Overteaching' and Avoidance Keep Kids From Classics

 

            One reason many schools aren't making teachers teach the classic books is that they feel great books are too difficult and intimidating for both teachers and students. So they don't teach Great Books at all.

 

            At the other extreme are the many schools that expect a teacher to help kids quickly master the unfamiliar vocabulary, settings and themes of great books, on top of the higher-order thinking that's prized in literature classes these days: analysis, comparison, synthesis and other intensive thought processes. It amounts to overcomplicating the reading process and "overteaching" the students.

 

            But classic books are really not that "hard" to read, if you're just reading them instead of studying every word. And there's more than enough meat in the average classic book to give a student plenty of intellectual stimulation without getting bogged down in overcomplicating the reading process.

 

            It's time for a return to literal reading of great literature. Give the teenagers the books, and let them just read them. Test them, if you will, on the facts of what they read: the big points of plot, character, setting and theme, to make sure they understand the book on the literal level. But let's quit getting bogged down in the "study your navel," microscopic book analysis that has caused so many high-school students to hate reading.

 

            We should quit wasting teachers' time, and confusing students, with all the college-level analysis that's so popular in high schools today. And those schools that have shied away from classics out of fear that they're too "hard" for kids need to return, immediately. Both of these extremes are keeping our teens and young adults from the important stories of all time.

 

            Look at Shakespeare -- every one of his plays was a retread of what were then familiar tales. Every other word wasn't a symbol of something else. He didn't make the audiences stop and analyze why his characters were doing what they were doing; the show just went on, the audience was relaxed, and immersed in the wonderful wit and wisdom of Shakespeare's language mastery, they gained priceless benefit from the stories.

 

            Here what David Mulroy, a classics professor at U. of Wisconsin says about teaching Great Books:

 

            "The complexity of the Great Books also clarifies the teacher's role in a Great Books course. It is to make sure that the students understand the book on the literal level. . . . I have never known a student who actually mastered the literal facts of the text (The Iliad, in the particular instance) without also experiencing obvious intellectual stimulation. As a Great Books teacher, I help the students master the facts, then stand back and savor their reactions."

 

            This is true for young children reading, say, The Story of Doctor Dolittle or Winnie-the-Pooh. The literal facts, familiar or unfamiliar, are what matters.  Not any interpretive scheme -- "lateral thinking/exploration of alternatives" -- devised or encouraged by an adult.

 

            Just the facts, ma'ams and sirs!