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I'm sick and I'll probably regret noticing a sad & angry little man: let's leave aside questions of quality & relevance to consider his initial claim here. He's light on particulars, but I'll assume he means what we might have once called the Western Canon. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333639391382822914
The thing about Classics, you see, is they're old. It may be true that the Iliad is not inherently important; it's a contingent work that could have been different or not existed at all. But it exists, and everything--first in the West, by now everywhere--formed around it.
(The thing, indeed, about even the phrase "The Western Canon" is that it exists to acknowledge the existence of these other threads. Genji is awesome! I wish I could actually read Genji, but my Japanese was barely good enough to plow through Harry Potter in translation.)
Anyway, these are some of the reasons to teach English, but he's missing a fundamental one: everyone is born into an accidental world--reactions piled on accidents. In Housman's words, we're born "a stranger and afraid/ In a world [we] never made." https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333637778316419072
One of the great purposes of education is to orient the student to the world in which he finds himself. Let us grant the premise that Hamlet sucks & will turn kids off to reading--nonetheless, those kids exist in a world that is, in a very real way, built on Hamlet.
And let's just talk about this attitude for a second. Dave is, essentially, telling children from oppressed and under-represented groups that they shouldn't be included in the world. What a triumph for diversity that would be. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333643142558605314
"Oh, sure, you're in a world that can only be explained by knowing what came before you, but don't worry about it sweety. You're perfect just the way you are. Read whatever you like!"
Fuck. That. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333643142558605314
Fuck. That. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333643142558605314
Again, we're leaving aside all questions of quality and meaning for this thread. But given that, the plea I would make is this:
The more you can understand of the deep structure of the world, the greater the richness of living in the world. The Western Canon, whatever else it may be, is a selection of works that have had an outsized influence on the world we live in today.
Depriving children of--to name the big ones--Homer, Shakespeare, and the Bible, is depriving them of much of the fullness of the world. There are no alternatives available, because by now, Earth and high heaven are fixed deep and founded strong.
(By the way, to be clear, the premise that Hamlet sucks is granted purely arguendo. I am not interested in, right now, discussing the relative quality of the western canon, and I believe that--even assuming it's all garbage--it's /still/ abuse not to ground people in it)
Here, for what it's worth, is a somewhat calmer followup thread where he presents anecdotal evidence from his life to make categorical claims about people who disagree with him. https://twitter.com/DavidOBowles/status/1333806798134972416
Let me tl;dr my own fundamental points:
• I have no objection to the teaching of (almost?) anything & no opinion on how to drive classroom engagement
• Certain texts are inescapable due to their First Mover advantage
• I have no objection to the teaching of (almost?) anything & no opinion on how to drive classroom engagement
• Certain texts are inescapable due to their First Mover advantage
• Much of education is: "this is the world you find yourself in, and how it got that way."
• Those inescapable texts are an enormous part of that
• Depriving students of those texts is abuse
• Singling out marginalized students for that deprivation is particularly suspect
• Those inescapable texts are an enormous part of that
• Depriving students of those texts is abuse
• Singling out marginalized students for that deprivation is particularly suspect
