tolman hall blog
Digging deeper
The way literature is taught has changed dramatically in the last 50-80 years, and some now say that most Humanities curriculum is infused by one ideology or another. I’ve seen this myself. When one of my kids was taking an English course at the local public school, the students were asked to explain why Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was racist. The worst part of this assignment is that they didn’t actually read the classic novel. They were simply given a few short excerpts and asked to explain why the novel was “racist” based on these few excerpts.
If the students had actually read the novel, they would have been able to use their own minds to explore a deeply psychological plot line and some intriguing characters. They would have been able to experience what it was like to travel through an African jungle on a steamboat a century ago (the author actually did this, so he knows all about it), and they would have been able to explore the symbols, imagery, allusions, and other masterful literary devices employed by the author. They could have admired the literary genius of this Polish author who wrote the book in his second language–no small feat. Instead, they were asked to condemn it outright. Why would any of them bother reading Heart of Darkness after learning from their teacher that it was racist? And by extension, why would they ever pick up another one of Conrad’s nearly two dozen books, which include collaborations with other leading authors of the day, such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, and Ford Madox Ford? It’s baffling that teachers of the Humanities would undermine their chosen academic subject and ruin it for the next generation. That’s why it’s so important to find curriculum that respects and deals honestly with literature. When students come away from a literature unit study, they should have an expanded worldview, an increased respect for language, and a better understanding of how authors use literary devices to tell a story. All of this learning should lead to improved writing skills for the student. As we study the great writers, we learn about how ideas can be effectively developed and conveyed, and we also increase our vocabularies and powers of description. Essentially, the study of literature should help students to learn how to think, not what to think. Curriculum that includes leading questions and personal assumptions (“tell me why this book is racist”) leads to the closing of minds rather than the opening of minds. If there’s anything we need now it’s young people with open minds who have the ability to think for themselves and recognize the good and the beautiful in the world around them. There is so much to learn from literature. Using the previous example of Heart of Darkness, students could study it on many levels. They could analyze its frame story structure and compare it to other works written in the same format. They could talk about point of view and how the story would have been very different if it had been written from the 3rd person or from another character’s viewpoint. They could talk about the world in which the author lived and how his personal experiences affected his fiction. They could study Conrad’s imagery and practice imitating it in their own writing. However you choose to teach your students, be conscious of the intentions behind the curriculum. Does the curriculum aim to help students love literature for literature’s sake and to use their reading to open their minds to new knowledge and skills? Or does the curriculum aim to get students to see only certain things and to think only in certain ways? Dr. Camille Paglia If you want your students to be lifelong readers and to develop the skills necessary to think, write, and act for themselves, introduce them to good books, and make your introduction an honest and respectful one. Dr. Camille Paglia expressed her concern about “the total inability of students to assess whether something is solid, dubious, or whether it’s a joke or a scam. People who’ve worked with books have the ability to do that.” Give your students the ability to think for themselves by choosing literature curriculum that respects students, authors, and knowledge.
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