Camille at Book Moot has a good post on AP Literature classes and how they can suck the joy out of reading. I’m going to teach a British literature class at our homeschool co-op this fall, and we’re just going to read the literature and discuss it in class once a week. No papers, no deep literary analysis, just a book discussion group. I think writing is important, and I think that learning some tools that will help in the understanding of poetry or novels is important, too. But I want more than anything for these homeschooled high school students to come out of high school with a love for books and poetry in general and for some books and poetry in particular. We’ll see how it works out.
Video games might be better for children’s brains than books? I don’t believe it, and even if I did believe it, I’d rather be reading. But it’s an interesting theory. From Arts and Letters Daily.
And that’s all for tonight. The younger set are watching It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, best slapstick comedy ever. Dancer Daughter, Organizer Daughter and I went to see Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors tonight. The actors were a drama class made up of homeschooled high school students, and the setting for the comedy was “moved” to New York in the 1920’s. Antipholuses (Antipholi?) and Dromios in hats and pinstripes–it was great.
I would love to know what you are going to teach. British literature is my favorite! I agree that writing is important. I just wish my daughter had had more chances to write about the books they were reading instead of tests asking “What color was the apartment door on the third floor?” or “What was the address of the house Red Riding Hood passed on the way to Grandma’s house?”