Post by Tim Collins on Feb 26, 2010 7:04:54 GMT -7
I have never seen this gentleman in action in a classroom, but I do read his opinion piece everweek in the El Paso Times and receive it via e-mail, I have to say I am becoming a real fan
He tends to use some uncommon language in his writing, but the message of this piece just struck me as fundamentally correct. Let teachers teach, let students learn to learn.
Ramnath Subramanian: Students are deprived of great works of literature
Ramnath Subramanian / Special to the Times
Posted: 02/25/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Many students attending schools in America will enroll in their freshman year of high school without ever having heard of Chekhov, Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy.
It is likely they will not be able to meaningfully enter into any conversation about "Oliver Twist," "Animal Farm," or "Around The World In Eighty Days."
The names of Cervantes and Octavio Paz will probably elicit nothing more than a cursory shrug of non-recognition.
This is a tragedy of significant proportion, for which our education system bears the full onus of blame.
Instead of introducing children to great works of literature in their original or competently abridged form, and thus inculcating in them a love and passion for books, many teachers, under the gun of an out-of-control accountability system, are engaged in the quotidian task of training their students to pass state-mandated reading tests.
The material frequently used is a collection of insipid and soporific reading passages.
Who needs Chekhov when a student can check off the right answer on a multiple-choice assignment?
There are middle-school teachers who are providing a globally rich, literary canvas for their students' thoughts and expressions. Their number, however, is small, because an oppressive bureaucracy stifles the talents and creativity that teachers naturally bring to their classrooms.
Too many school officials are perennially engaged in a search to purchase new tools to enhance education, when the best tools are already
paid for and in their midst: talented teachers.
All the test-taking skills can be taught admirably with "Pride and Prejudice" or "A Tale of Two Cities."
The presumption that a main idea or an inference can be extracted only from a passage constructed specifically for test preparation, and not from the literary turf of a novel, is misguided and myopic. Children who are taught to delve analytically into works of literature usually find themselves well-situated to tackle the challenges of state-mandated tests.
The advantage of using literature is that it brings a buoyancy and ebullience that is entirely lacking in clinically constructed passages.
Reading a passage about snakes on one day, and the pyramids on the next, lacks the anticipation and fluidity that the transition from one chapter to the next provides in a great novel.
In India, books are worshipped during Saraswati Puja. It is not surprising, therefore, that no books were ever to be found lying on any of my classrooms' floors.
Equally unsurprising was the theatricality with which one of my English teachers, Mr. Biswas, unveiled books for his daily reading: they each came wrapped in an embroidered, red silk cloth with a ribbon around it, which he untied with religious care and immaculate deliberation.
It is not possible to bring such drama and anticipation to a passage from a sheet of copy paper.
Mr. Biswas would say: "You must get to know each of the characters in the book as well as your own family members. You must pay attention to every detail; the color of the heroine's eyes and the way she speaks are just as vital to the enjoyment and appreciation of the novel as its plot."
Reading was a slow enterprise; on some days, Mr. Biswas read just one paragraph, on other days, a page or two. But the discussions we had were long and lovely.
In this way, we claimed ownership of great works of literature.
Ramnath Subramanian, a sixth-grade science teacher at Eastwood Knolls School in El Paso, writes for the El Paso Times on educational topics. E-mail address: ramnath10@aol.com
He tends to use some uncommon language in his writing, but the message of this piece just struck me as fundamentally correct. Let teachers teach, let students learn to learn.
Ramnath Subramanian: Students are deprived of great works of literature
Ramnath Subramanian / Special to the Times
Posted: 02/25/2010 12:00:00 AM MST
Many students attending schools in America will enroll in their freshman year of high school without ever having heard of Chekhov, Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy.
It is likely they will not be able to meaningfully enter into any conversation about "Oliver Twist," "Animal Farm," or "Around The World In Eighty Days."
The names of Cervantes and Octavio Paz will probably elicit nothing more than a cursory shrug of non-recognition.
This is a tragedy of significant proportion, for which our education system bears the full onus of blame.
Instead of introducing children to great works of literature in their original or competently abridged form, and thus inculcating in them a love and passion for books, many teachers, under the gun of an out-of-control accountability system, are engaged in the quotidian task of training their students to pass state-mandated reading tests.
The material frequently used is a collection of insipid and soporific reading passages.
Who needs Chekhov when a student can check off the right answer on a multiple-choice assignment?
There are middle-school teachers who are providing a globally rich, literary canvas for their students' thoughts and expressions. Their number, however, is small, because an oppressive bureaucracy stifles the talents and creativity that teachers naturally bring to their classrooms.
Too many school officials are perennially engaged in a search to purchase new tools to enhance education, when the best tools are already
paid for and in their midst: talented teachers.
All the test-taking skills can be taught admirably with "Pride and Prejudice" or "A Tale of Two Cities."
The presumption that a main idea or an inference can be extracted only from a passage constructed specifically for test preparation, and not from the literary turf of a novel, is misguided and myopic. Children who are taught to delve analytically into works of literature usually find themselves well-situated to tackle the challenges of state-mandated tests.
The advantage of using literature is that it brings a buoyancy and ebullience that is entirely lacking in clinically constructed passages.
Reading a passage about snakes on one day, and the pyramids on the next, lacks the anticipation and fluidity that the transition from one chapter to the next provides in a great novel.
In India, books are worshipped during Saraswati Puja. It is not surprising, therefore, that no books were ever to be found lying on any of my classrooms' floors.
Equally unsurprising was the theatricality with which one of my English teachers, Mr. Biswas, unveiled books for his daily reading: they each came wrapped in an embroidered, red silk cloth with a ribbon around it, which he untied with religious care and immaculate deliberation.
It is not possible to bring such drama and anticipation to a passage from a sheet of copy paper.
Mr. Biswas would say: "You must get to know each of the characters in the book as well as your own family members. You must pay attention to every detail; the color of the heroine's eyes and the way she speaks are just as vital to the enjoyment and appreciation of the novel as its plot."
Reading was a slow enterprise; on some days, Mr. Biswas read just one paragraph, on other days, a page or two. But the discussions we had were long and lovely.
In this way, we claimed ownership of great works of literature.
Ramnath Subramanian, a sixth-grade science teacher at Eastwood Knolls School in El Paso, writes for the El Paso Times on educational topics. E-mail address: ramnath10@aol.com