the rix mix

I can relate to that. I used to plow through a wide variety of books over the summer other than The List. I wasn't very discriminating. From a NYT article, The Future of Reading:

JONESBORO, Ga. — For years Lorrie McNeill loved teaching “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic that many Americans regard as a literary rite of passage.

But last fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh- and eighth-grade English classes at Jonesboro Middle School in this south Atlanta suburb.

Among their choices: James Patterson‘s adrenaline-fueled “Maximum Ride” books, plenty of young-adult chick-lit novels and even the “Captain Underpants” series of comic-book-style novels.
***
The approach Ms. McNeill uses, in which students choose their own books, discuss them individually with their teacher and one another, and keep detailed journals about their reading, is part of a movement to revolutionize the way literature is taught in America’s schools. While there is no clear consensus among English teachers, variations on the approach, known as reading workshop, are catching on.
***
“What child is going to pick up ‘Moby-Dick’?” said Diane Ravitch, a professor of education at New York University who was assistant education secretary under President George H. W. Bush. “Kids will pick things that are trendy and popular. But that’s what you should do in your free time.”

Indeed, some school districts are moving in the opposite direction. Boston is developing a core curriculum that will designate specific books for sixth grade and is considering assigned texts for each grade through the 12th.

Moby Dick? Maybe kids can find some old Classic Illustrated comics. I did more than one book report from those.

Summer reading lists did greatly improve over the years, compared to the ones I received from teachers. Not that Harold Robbins novels were ever on any of them, nor would teacher now think much of "The Carpetbaggers." But my mom had them, so I read them. In the Sixties, in my high school, even "Franny & Zooey" & "On the Road" were more or less "alternative" reading.

The local library has some alluring reading for teens, including a genre of very realistic Black urban culture novels.

I'll always remember my freshman English class taking what seemed like a month to collectively grind through "Great Expectations." Why? Because the head of the high school English dept was 100 years old.

Labels: education, what I'm reading