US Schools To Become Even More Dystopian

[Priory Academy USSR]

Dat Orwellian Society.

Yeah, but in Oceania you wouldn't even know about those books by now. They wouldn't exist.

IIRC, they would exist, but in a pro-Party edited way. Unless it was too incompatible with the Party's ideas to be changed, of course.

[Ahnilunia]

Dat Orwellian Society.

Ignorance is Strength.

Goodthink Ingsoc. Oceania doubleplusgood. Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.

[Luziyca]

And that is why I am glad to be born in the Dominion of Canada, and not down south. Work is important, but knowing the arts is important, since one NEEDS to be a whole person. You can NOT have a grey man, one stuck with knowing only one thing. You need a whole person, so society can continue to survive.

[Astrolinium]

Yeah, but in Oceania you wouldn't even know about those books by now. They wouldn't exist.

IIRC, they would exist, but in a pro-Party edited way. Unless it was too incompatible with the Party's ideas to be changed, of course.

I really, really feel like the Party wouldn't be terribly fond of 1984.

Just a hunch.

[Avenio]

He's from Nepal but he's been living in the U.K for years.

We know. And he's about 16. Don't you love being lectured by children?

Especially one who actually writes in an accent.

[Ende]

Ignorance is Strength.

Goodthink Ingsoc. Oceania doubleplusgood. Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.

We have always been at war with Eurasia!

[Northwest Slobovia]

God forbid we teach children about the single most important form of art in human history.

When we could be teaching them about useful stuff which achieves same primary goals as teaching them fiction plus its well usefulness.

Really? A bunch of random federal government reports are "useful"?

Even as a scientist who reads mostly non-fiction for pleasure, I think the main effect of the plan will be to convince kids that reading is deathly dull, boring, and tedious. Our children read badly enough as it is without trying to convince them to read less.

So, my goal would be to convince them that reading is entertaining, enjoyable, and informative. I'd start by figuring out what sorts of things they want to read and have them read that. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction isn't important to me; some kids will want nothing but fiction, others may be perfectly happy with a diet of pure fact. It doesn't matter, so long as what they're reading is helping them learn to read.

[Farnhamia]

Yeah, but in Oceania you wouldn't even know about those books by now. They wouldn't exist.

IIRC, they would exist, but in a pro-Party edited way. Unless it was too incompatible with the Party's ideas to be changed, of course.

Perhaps, yes. Edited versions might exist as part of instructional texts for people who can be trusted with such material.

[Farnhamia]

Goodthink Ingsoc. Oceania doubleplusgood. Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc.

We have always been at war with Eurasia!

And with Harper Lee.

[Priory Academy USSR]

IIRC, they would exist, but in a pro-Party edited way. Unless it was too incompatible with the Party's ideas to be changed, of course.

I really, really feel like the Party wouldn't be terribly fond of 1984.

Just a hunch.

Whoops, I thought he was referring to To Kill a Mockingbird and the like.

[Caninope]

I just hate that reading list, especially all that nonfiction junk!

I mean really. Common Sense? Unoriginal, and lifeless. Thomas Jefferson? He's a horrible writer, we'd be much better off reading an obscure work of John Donne's obviously (and for the record, Donne is my favorite metaphysical poet).

George Orwell? What does he know about the English language? Pfft. All he did was shoot an elephant, have rats shoved upon some poor shod for making love with a woman, and teach pigs to have double chins.

[Ahnilunia]

And that is why I am glad to be born in the Dominion of Canada, and not down south. Work is important, but knowing the arts is important, since one NEEDS to be a whole person. You can NOT have a grey man, one stuck with knowing only one thing. You need a whole person, so society can continue to survive.

I guess that's what Canada gets for being the 'Good Child'...

Look what running away from Daddy is getting us.
Not that I'm ashamed we ran away. *Sneer*

[MadBasstid]

I'm not sure I really trust that that article is 100% accurate- but it wouldn't surprise me too much, either. I'd like to see more Americans invest in the voucher system, which still funds the education of the poor but gives them a choice of which school to attend.

Recommended reading- "Lies My Teacher Taught Me".

[Northwest Slobovia]

IIRC, they would exist, but in a pro-Party edited way. Unless it was too incompatible with the Party's ideas to be changed, of course.

I really, really feel like the Party wouldn't be terribly fond of 1984.

Huh? You mean that plusgood feelie-vision by George Brotherfriend talking about the inevitable triumph of Ingsoc? (Other, obsolete, ungoodthink versions have been thinkchanged by long visits to MiniTrue and MiniLove.)

[Meryuma]

By 2014, books such as The Catcher In The Rye will be replaced with [instructional texts such as Recommended Levels Of Insulation:



I am completely horrified. This is the enforcement of an incredibly dehumanizing and lifeless worldview in which the company comes before everything: before the individual, before learning, and before the arts. Education in the US is becoming more and more ruthless, coldly practical and opposed to creative thinking. It makes perfect sense that Bill Gates would support this, as it's a proposal in a long tradition of mind-numbing managerial control.

Looks like someone hasn't been in an American school in a while.

I'm 16. I have been for most of my life.

Anyways, even if the story is exaggerated, it still represents a disturbing trend towards education being stripped of artistic and intellectual qualities due to the increasing prioritization of work.

[Farnhamia]

I'm not sure I really trust that that article is 100% accurate- but it wouldn't surprise me too much, either. I'd like to see more Americans invest in the voucher system, which still funds the education of the poor but gives them a choice of which school to attend.

No, it doesn't. Do you have any idea what a decent private school costs? A lot more than the pittance the vouchers are worth. When the vouchers hand over 20 or 30 thousand bucks per child, we'll talk.

[Farnhamia]

You've been 16 for most of your life?

Looks like someone hasn't been in an American school in a while.

I'm 16. I have been for most of my life.

Anyways, even if the story is exaggerated, it still represents a disturbing trend towards education being stripped of artistic and intellectual qualities due to the increasing prioritization of work.

[Great Nepal]

In education system, yes.
What is point of having stuff that is not real in class when you could achieve same aims while teaching something that is. If:
A gives benefits xyz.
B gives benefits wxyz.
Logical choice is B.

There's more to life than being a mindless cog in an inhumane system. One of the main goals of education ought to be to help the students develop their critical thinking skills. Reading good fiction helps the more intuitive, non-linear aspects of the mind develop.

Learning sonnet 116 or mice and men increase development of critical thinking skills than say learning applied chemistry book?

[Northwest Slobovia]

I'm not sure I really trust that that article is 100% accurate-

Newspaper of record is the Washington (DC) Post: Common core sparks war over words

[Sdaeriji]

There's more to life than being a mindless cog in an inhumane system. One of the main goals of education ought to be to help the students develop their critical thinking skills. Reading good fiction helps the more intuitive, non-linear aspects of the mind develop.

Learning sonnet 116 or mice and men increase development of critical thinking skills than say learning applied chemistry book?

Infinitely.

[Bajireyn]

As a US high-school student I have only one thing to say about this.

Fuck.

[Farnhamia]

There's more to life than being a mindless cog in an inhumane system. One of the main goals of education ought to be to help the students develop their critical thinking skills. Reading good fiction helps the more intuitive, non-linear aspects of the mind develop.

Learning sonnet 116 or mice and men increase development of critical thinking skills than say learning applied chemistry book?

'Tis ...

SONNET 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

[Ifreann]

And you think that choosing to teach fiction or non-fiction is that simple? Sounds like bollocks to me, but then, I had to read To Kill A Mockingbird.

Which is a fine novel, and gave us an extraordinary movie. And in neither does some sod fight some other guy for three days.

You'll never let that go, will you?

---

When we could be teaching them about useful stuff which achieves same primary goals as teaching them fiction plus its well usefulness.

What non-fiction book is going to teach reading comprehension?

Reading Comprehension For Dummies?

---

...Nepal?

He's from Nepal but he's been living in the U.K for years.

Dang, almost.

---

I'm not sure I really trust that that article is 100% accurate- but it wouldn't surprise me too much, either. I'd like to see more Americans invest in the voucher system, which still funds the education of the poor but gives them a choice of which school to attend.

No, it doesn't. Do you have any idea what a decent private school costs? A lot more than the pittance the vouchers are worth. When the vouchers hand over 20 or 30 thousand bucks per child, we'll talk.

Some will talk. Some will cash those vouchers in for liquor.

[EnragedMaldivians]

Looks like someone hasn't been in an American school in a while.

I'm 16. I have been for most of my life.

Anyways, even if the story is exaggerated, it still represents a disturbing trend towards education being stripped of artistic and intellectual qualities due to the increasing prioritization of work.

See Caninope's post.

Literature

“The Canterbury Tales,” by Geoffrey Chaucer

“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“As I Lay Dying,” by William Faulkner

Informational Texts

“Common Sense,” by Thomas Paine

The Declaration of Independence, by Thomas Jefferson

“Declaration of Sentiments,” by the Seneca Falls Conference

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” by Frederick Douglass

“Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences,” by John Allen Paulos

“Working Knowledge: Electronic Stability Control,” by Mark Fischetti

“Politics and the English Language,” by George Orwell

It's not that bad. With regard to the underlined, that's still massive exaggeration.

[Northwest Slobovia]

There's more to life than being a mindless cog in an inhumane system. One of the main goals of education ought to be to help the students develop their critical thinking skills. Reading good fiction helps the more intuitive, non-linear aspects of the mind develop.

Learning sonnet 116 or mice and men increase development of critical thinking skills than say learning applied chemistry book?

If the student prefers reading them to applied chemistry, yes. There are many ways to develop critical thinking; if you believe reading non-fiction is the only way, you need to stretch your mind a little.