What a snob!/ Good writing/bad writing redux

[Mhochberg at aol.com]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom@
...> wrote:

<< Our high school reading list has some excellent books andshort stories. I don't have a problem with any one of the selection.However, the selection itself is horrible. Every single of thebooks/plays/short stories has to do with death.

I don't think it's the right mix for teenagers, especially with theteen suicide rate so high. Not that I think a depressing book will makesomeone become depressed, but it wouldn't help someone who already was.I certainly wouldn't want to read all of those selections in a 9 monthspan. >>

I write: 
What Potioncat is seeing is not that uncommon in our high schools also. A few years ago, I did a survey of the local public and private high schools. One of the things I looked at was the summer reading lists for incoming freshman. While each title was worthwhile, the overall effect was incredibly depressing. It was skewed look at humanity and I would not recommend that anyone, any age, read that selection of books, one after another, in so short a period of time. 



---Mary
http://techmom236.wordpress.com/
"If you read a lot of books you are considered well read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you are not considered well viewed."    Lily Tomlin




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