Twilight...Seriously?

Recently for my Adolescent Literature class, one of the novels covered was the infamous Twilight. Now, this led me to question, is this really something I would ever teach in a classroom environment? Absolutely not. There are a lot of reasons, why this is so, but the principal one is simply that the quality of the writing borders on abysmal. Sorry to offend any fans reading this, but honestly there are chapters a sixth grader could have written.

Apart from that, a lot of the plot deals with some controversial issues. Now, I’m not one for censorship. However, after dealing with correspondence journals of eighth graders, it’s become apparent that these kids are so wrapped up in Edward Cullen that they have a hard time realizing that he doesn’t exist. Not to be cynical or anything. Even though I realize Bella is in love, it is essentially her falling in love with a “peeping Tom”. Edward is a complete voyer who does nothing but objectify his love interest.

Well, I don’t know that’s just my view. On the plus side, the series does get kids to read more than they normally would, but I feel like it is just another version of a classless, cheesy romance novel.

Thoughts on Grading...

So, I was sitting at my laptop, trying to think of something remotely interesting to write about for this blog. Needless, to say, I got distracted, but I started thinking. I came upon the realization that in less than one year I am going to be student teaching. As English major, I can more or less know what to expect as far as content goes, but this led me to think about my high school English courses and the way in which grades were normally given. We always got quizzes and tests about the content of the work . Every so often there was an essay thrown in to make us think critically.

But is that really how students should be tested? I mean the point of literature isn’t to understand the plot; it’s to take some kind of knowledge or lesson away from the text. Wouldn’t it be better to give essay assignments asking students to focus on certain aspect of the work, rather than rote memorization tests?

Standardized English

Like many other education majors, I’ve recently been doing my observations. Now, I’m a secondary education English major. Through the classes I’ve been taking, I’m supposed to be expecting to teach high school kids about writing, literature, and even how to think outside the box. Unfortunately, I don’t think that’s what’s going to happen. Every school district I’ve been too has actual five day a week classes dedicated to the sole purpose of standardized testing. A lot of these teachers are English teachers. Even in the English classes, a good chunk of what these kids do is to prepare them for the PSSAs. So how can you teach anyone about literature and good writing if you have to teach based on a formula? The purpose of Language arts is not to think like a clone, but to branch out and be able to make your own connections. Not every classroom operates this way, but the number is definitely higher than it should be. Needless to say, it’s pretty disappointing to observe and realize that instead of teaching minds to open and embrace the abstract, I’m going to have to teach them to close in on small, logical points.

Fingerprint Funding

School districts without a lot of money to spare are not exactly a new gripe. Personally, I know my alma mater has trouble with simple things as computer paper. That’s not to say it’s under funded or anything- it’s still a decent school; it just has a few monetary issues every so often. So where does federal funding come in? Well I don’t feel like getting too deep into the No Child Left Behind, but my school (Tamaqua Area Senior High School), manages to perform relatively well on the standardized tests, so we have decent funding. The only problem is, instead of funding us for paper and toner, the feds think it’s much better to fund us for technologies that are, well, a waste of time.
Recently, in the past few months, the cafeteria has done away with currency in favor of paying for lunches electronically with a fingerprint system. Now in some ways it makes sense, being that going paperless is becoming a quick trend. But so far, this system has been a disaster. Parents put money in an account via credit card, and then the student presses his or her finger to a machine, and that’s the payment. Not only has this taken jobs away, but in two months time, the efficiency is slower than ever. The machine is not exactly fast, so the line moves slow, and if it malfunctions, well, forget lunch. But perhaps this is what irks me the most: money can only be placed in the account at certain times via certain ways. So if a parent/child forgets to put money in the account electronically then no lunch.
I’m not trying to say that this is an altogether bad thing, but it’s completely unnecessary. Why would the federal government rather fund semi-useless and partly functioning machines, when they don’t even really cover essentials like books, paper, and such? Shouldn’t they be more concerned with funding a solid education?