You disgusting worms, I can read in TWELVE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES. I have a MA in English and a doctorate in Education...
... and EVEN I think that the "classics" are shit for modern kids.
You're not on my level, trust me. So take a MOTHERFUCKING SEAT & leave my people alone.
6/
... and EVEN I think that the "classics" are shit for modern kids.
You're not on my level, trust me. So take a MOTHERFUCKING SEAT & leave my people alone.
6/
Your supercilious, privileged, frankly RACIST tirades against middle-grade and young-adult literature come from a place of DEEP IGNORANCE about the books that have been written over the past 30 years by writers that could MOP THE FUCKING FLOOR with your out-dated asses.
7/
7/
The teachers you're attacking? Fools, they KNOW PEDAGOGY. They understand that their job is to TEACH KIDS TO READ, deeply and critically, and then to set those kids free in the world to dive into the books THEY choose, not what your simple-minded adherence to custom dictates.
8/
8/
YOU want your own children to read the classics?
Buy those books for them. Read them with them, like you do whatever scripture you hold dear. Ain't nobody stopping you, friends.
But this pearl-clutching and browbeating? It needs to stop. You look petty, cruel, small.
9/
Buy those books for them. Read them with them, like you do whatever scripture you hold dear. Ain't nobody stopping you, friends.
But this pearl-clutching and browbeating? It needs to stop. You look petty, cruel, small.
9/
Especially when you propose we force the canon on children from oppressed, under-represented groups.
They need literacy, not to conform to your egregiously backwards notions of literary quality, BUT TO LIBERATE THEMSELVES FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
Written language is a tool.
10/
They need literacy, not to conform to your egregiously backwards notions of literary quality, BUT TO LIBERATE THEMSELVES FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU!!!
Written language is a tool.
10/
A tool we wield
to carve our happiness out of the crude stuff of reality.
to stave off the darkness of existential despair
to fight against those who would snuff out our spark, our essential dignity & humanity
to assert our right to EXIST in the face of fools like you.
11/
to carve our happiness out of the crude stuff of reality.
to stave off the darkness of existential despair
to fight against those who would snuff out our spark, our essential dignity & humanity
to assert our right to EXIST in the face of fools like you.
11/
So curl up with the books you love & let us help young people discover the ones THEY love.
They won't be the same titles, I'm afraid.
Millions of books exist.
We're not sticking to the few dozen you've declared holy writ.
Our kids deserve more.
They deserve freedom.
12/12
They won't be the same titles, I'm afraid.
Millions of books exist.
We're not sticking to the few dozen you've declared holy writ.
Our kids deserve more.
They deserve freedom.
12/12
PS. The trolls replying to this thread (especially the tweet with my credentials) with a variation on "shut up, nerd" are not doing their side any good.
"Shut up, nerd! We'll keep forcing classics on children."
What an absurd string of words. JFC.
"Shut up, nerd! We'll keep forcing classics on children."
What an absurd string of words. JFC.
PPS. tl;dr version—Literally NO ONE is saying people SHOULD NOT read the classics. We're saying that they shouldn't be forced on modern young people in the classroom. There's no data demonstrating the instructional soundness of that approach, and lots that shows it's harmful.