High School

[Big Dante]

In High school being in Australia we read many Australian novels and in both Grade 9 and 10 we did a unit on Shakespeare which included Romeo and Juliet along with Macbeth. Other than this we did not read any well known classics.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Just curious. Are you guys in regular, honors, or AP level English? I did AP in high school, and remember reading a great deal more than the samples you guys listed here. Of course, I didn't go to school in California, but I've taught there and, yes, it is pretty pathetic.

In my humble opinion, this is something wrong with AP classes. The idea that reading more equals learning more is fallacious. AP classes should read the same amount as regular track classes, but look at the texts deeper. Reading as much as possible as fast as possible isn't "advanced," it's just faster, which usually isn't better.

[Wilde woman]

In my humble opinion, this is something wrong with AP classes. The idea that reading more equals learning more is fallacious. AP classes should read the same amount as regular track classes, but look at the texts deeper. Reading as much as possible as fast as possible isn't "advanced," it's just faster, which usually isn't better.

In defense of AP classes, they do more writing, which tends to force students to read more critically. I remember having to do many more timed writings and research papers on certain books or poems than the regulars or honors students, and it certainly made me a better reader.

On the other hand, I agree with you. In my senior AP class, we blew through a number of the Western classics (Beowulf, the Aeneid, the Inferno, Paradise Lost) with very little discussion of them, and I left high school hating a good number of them (esp. Milton). But having been exposed to them led me to revisit them later in life, and my opinions have been almost totally reversed.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

Oh, I definitely think more is learned in AP classes. I just think a lot more could be learned if there was a different approach. Especially with classics. You can't blow through works like the ones you listed. You can with some contemporary works, but not centuries old epic poetry. If you're going to do Milton, do it right and devote enough time to it so students understand it. If this takes too much time, don't do it at all. That's the way I see it, at least. And, of course, the curriculum doesn't always give you a choice.

It's funny, because students take college prep classes when those classes are nothing like what an actual college class is.

[Hyacinthine]

It's funny, because students take college prep classes when those classes are nothing like what an actual college class is.

We've blown through books a lot in several of the college classes I've taken. I can't really compare them to high school classes though since I was barely in high school.