Something has been happening lately in my english class. I'm currently a senior and taking Western World Lit. The teacher is making the class do at least one book report (two if you want an A or B grade). When we go to the library to choose the books we are going to read (from a list of about 100 books so we have a large enough choice) the kids automatically go for the smallest book they can find. I'm not trying to be discriminatory or anything but it's mostly the boys who do this, I find that most girls are more of "fun" readers than guys. It makes me sad when we get back to the classroom and someone looks at the book I picked out with this amazed look on his or her face and says "Why didn't you pick a shorter book? I can't believed you picked such a long book!" to me. It's sad that books are chosen on their legnth and not on their content. I'm an avid reader and most of my friends are too. The scary thing is I used to be like them until I found a book I really loved (believe it or not reading the first Harry Potter was REALLY a life changing experience for me. lol).
What is this education system comming to? About half of the people (and yes I've kept track, not to be mean but to use the results in statics) in my class (of 24) have trouble reading out loud from our Western WOrld Lit. Textbook. Currently we are reading the Illiad. FOr those of you who have read the book, yes I know it's a harder book but they butcher words that they hear everyday in their lives. It's like a foreign language to them when it's actually written down. They can speak it but they can't read it properly. I'm not trying to be mean or anything but it makes me sad. Being in that class reminds me of being in 2nd grade when everyone was sounding out words and getting them mixed up.
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It's really unfortunate that the use of English is getting butchered. I cringe at every chatspeak I see, cry when I see horribly mispelled words, yadda yadda flambee. (Occasional lol's and w00t's are welcome.)
It makes me wish sometimes that I'd use this English degree to teach students some real English. But alas, I'll be writing for those few people who do still like to pick up a book.
It's sad that is has come to this. Most people just dont read unless you count road signs and vidio game directions. I love to read I wish more people did.