Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ Big mistake — Schools are swapping out Shakespeare, Chaucer and Dickens for Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

This is why you shouldn't depend on consultants to teach writing classes. No, not because they're teaching students about Taylor Swift and Kendrick Lamar - after all, if Bob Dylan can win a Nobel Prize, popular culture can be literature. No, it's this: "I teach writing to high schoolers through my college consulting firm," writes Liza Libes. "When preparing students to write their college essays, I always lead with literature — Hemingway, Dostoyevsky, Fitzgerald, for instance — for I believe that developing strong communication skills lies in understanding the writing styles and messages of these great thinkers and writers." How useless would this be?

Today: 2 Total: 119 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Oct 07, 2024 09:57 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes