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One of the best assignments I ever had…

Posted in Uncategorized on March 12, 2009 by silversquirrel

In my high school Sr. government class (graduated in 2005) I was assigned to choose one song as my “political anthem.” While many students in the class chose the popular “American Idiot” by Green Day, I chose “Futures” by Jimmy Eat World. I then had to go through line by line and explain what the lyrics said to me, and why it was important.

This was great, because it: 1) forced me to think about what I thought politically and 2) Find what artists were saying.

I plan on using something like this with my kids when teaching, because it is fun and effective. The kids get to pick from whatever genre they like, and you get to have them think. it is a win-win.

I find it very hard to believe that there could be no discussion started if the lyrics or video for the Flobots’, “Handlebars“ or Serj Tankian’s “Empty Walls“ was shown to a class.

Can you imagin a class having no comment to those?

Should literature choices be left up to the English teachers?

Posted in Uncategorized on March 10, 2009 by silversquirrel

Don’t get me wrong, while I think that Shakespeare should be taught to highschool students, I also think that there are other books which should be considered other than the old school classics. Books which comment on society and its values are just as important. Spending one day, if that much, on the works of Johnathan Swift, (A Modest Proposal) is not nearly enough.

I think that works like Slaughterhouse-Five, Fahrenheit 451, 1984, and Catch-22 should have some place in the classroom, and should be focused on. Critical thinking is on the top of many lists of goals for students to achieve. Teaching books like these would demand that students learn at least the first steps of critical thinking and allow them to examine the world in which they live much deeper.

Should such an important thing be left to only the English department?

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