Originally Posted by
Neely
Ha, ha. This is the English education system that Kev is talking about here Kiki, be kind.:biggrin5: This is the same education system that has students studying about one novel, two at the most, in their GCSEs (14-16) and about one play, and that is pushing it, massively so.
However, I'm not intending to pick on schooling or teenagers here because I do think that Dickens would be considered a very hard read for the majority of native UK speakers - certainly for those people who are occasional readers or holiday readers. "Wordy, dense, difficult to read and old-fashioned" would certainly be accurate crimes that Dickens commits in that regard.
From my teaching experience I can tell you that there is no hope in hell of ever getting close to reading the likes of Great Expectations or A Tale of Two Cities, not a prayer of getting close to it, even an extract of 6/7 pages would be too much to handle, I'm serious. (Damn I said I wouldn't go for the school thing, never mind.)
I was teaching a top set class last week and just annotating two poems was enough to bring the boredom home to roost. I tried my best not be dull and even waved my arms a little here and there to add interest, but by the end of it I could see eyes glazing over and I had to insert video clips to stop the riots setting in (though that didn't really help). Oh boy we are so out of whack it is unbelievable, unbelievable, fecking unbelievable. :out:
Children of 8 years old? The vast majority of 18 year olds in this country could not tackle Dickens, 28 year olds even. Anyone. Maybe 1% at the most. This is the reality I'm afraid.