This survey of English teachers shows that To Kill a Mockingbird is far and away the most popular book assigned to 9th and 10th grade students. The most important lesson that teachers want to teach our children--more important than the horrors of totalitarianism (1984) for example--is that white Americans, as a rule, have been unfair to blacks.
More important than always believing the rape victim.
ReplyDelete"Egalitarianism" as the ideology of our time is a lie, autistic NRx monarchists with race-neutral contempt for "plebes" are in no danger of losing their jobs
I am encouraged that The Odyssey comes in second. The Western values of courage, endurance, and virtuosity are still alive. We need to venerate the ancient Greeks because they make modern intellectuals look like a joke.
ReplyDeleteNot a huge surprise on what gets the top spot, but overall that list is less discouraging that I would've imagined it to be. The Odyssey, BNW, 1984, Huck Finn, F451--it's not a half-bad list, and one with titles that almost seem to slant in the direction of interesting boys more than girls, which I definitely wouldn't have expected.
ReplyDeleteThe Odyssey's a fun adventure story. As for 1984, that one's crimethink depending on who you identify with Big Brother (or Sister in our era) ;) It was the Matrix before the Matrix...way, way before.
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