If you majored in English in college, I don't really wanna hear your response to this question (actually, that's not true; I do want to hear it, but please state up front that you were an Enlish major). I am very interested, however, in responses from everyone else. Of all the things you were made to read, in intermediate school or high school or college, fiction or non-fiction, poetry or prose, what stands out the most, and why? Is there something some teacher made you read that you still look back upon with some fondness?
I get the answer to this question all the time, even though I never really ask. When I'm meeting folks and they find out I'm an English teacher, I often get told how much they hated English...except for ______________.
There are two or three titles that fill that blank more often than the others; there is one that I especially hear mentioned with great frequency.
So please: What was it for you? And if you can spare a few moments to consider why, why?
I already know a lot of you will be tempted to say, "I never read a thing in intermediate or high school; I BSed my way through all my classes and got As, and look how great my life turned out." Yes, I congratulate you, but that's not the topic at hand. So if you'd like to begin a thread about the uselessness of assigned reading or about the complete irrelevance of the Dead White Guys we English teachers are so in love with, please do.
Here, though, I'd appreciate a candid answer to the question: What one (or two) assigned readings have stuck with you?
I get the answer to this question all the time, even though I never really ask. When I'm meeting folks and they find out I'm an English teacher, I often get told how much they hated English...except for ______________.
There are two or three titles that fill that blank more often than the others; there is one that I especially hear mentioned with great frequency.
So please: What was it for you? And if you can spare a few moments to consider why, why?
I already know a lot of you will be tempted to say, "I never read a thing in intermediate or high school; I BSed my way through all my classes and got As, and look how great my life turned out." Yes, I congratulate you, but that's not the topic at hand. So if you'd like to begin a thread about the uselessness of assigned reading or about the complete irrelevance of the Dead White Guys we English teachers are so in love with, please do.
Here, though, I'd appreciate a candid answer to the question: What one (or two) assigned readings have stuck with you?
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