'Appropriate' Reading in High School

Introducing people of all ages to mythology... in pre-college educational curricula, youth orgs, the media, etc. Share your knowledge, stories, unit and lesson plans, techniques, and more.

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Transom
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'Appropriate' Reading in High School

Post by Transom »

Hello all!

A few days ago my sister - a junior in high school - was complaining to my mother about her current honors English novel "Sarum" (by Ernest Rutherford). "Too Long...what's the point...when will I ever need to know this...etc". At the time I did not say anything, but her questions put me to thinking. I read Sarum in high school (under the same teacher in fact - I am 23 and attending grad school at lehigh university beginning in january) and realized that I had asked similar questions of that particular text.

In fact, I had asked those questions about almost all of the books I was assigned during my tenure in highschool. These ranged from several of Dickens' works, to Frankenstein, Sarum obviously, and others.

If I had known then what I do now regarding Joe's work, especially the insights in the The Hero, I feel that my appreciation (or at least grudging respect) for the work assigned would have greatly improved. But I personally was not ready to understand the ideas of archetypes and perenial philosophies, and certainly could not have gleaned a thing relating to my own life from something like Bleakhouse.

My question then is: Thinking back to your own experiences regarding HS English in light of your understanding of myths today (were all here because we share a common love of learning :D ) what books do you feel are appropriate to offer to a student of 15, 16, 17 years of age? (This is assuming that the teacher is presenting the material well and with enthusiam).

I have some ideas of my own about this, but for now I would like to hear from all of you! I ask because, even if my sister must read what the curriculum dictates, I will be able to offer her other books to read on the side that may be more pertinent to her mind right now, and as the forum implies, awaken her mythological mind.

Apologies for the long post, it is my first one as a JCF associate!

Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Ah! The King Must Die by Mary Renault! Once and Future King by T.H. White!

Welcome, Transom, and no apologizing for long posts around here!
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Personally I enjoyed Sarum, but I wasn't a kid when I read it nor forced to read it. Shoot, Salisbury still was Sarum when I was a teen. :P

Seriously, though, Transom, what are your sister's interests? No doubt folks here can come up with decent recommendations that will appeal to her in some way.

Cindy


P.S. And like Clemsy, I also turned my girls on to the Arthurian legends and Greek myths when they young, a good move as it turned out.
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

Transom
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Post by Transom »

Thanks for the replies!

She has read through a whole anthology of world myth I got her for christmas a few years back, and seemed fairly taken with the whole group. Ill definitely find the Once and Future King in my pile of books.

As for her interests, she is a phenomenal flutist and will probably end up going to school for music. She slogged through the Ainulindale of Tolkien and seemed to enjoy the creation story inflected through musical composition. When she isn't texting up a storm (a real and literal hurricane somedays I kid you not) she also volunteers at an animal shelter twice a week.

So two large spheres of interest for her are animals and music. Hope that helps narrow the search a bit!

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Post by Cindy B. »

Good grief, Transom, what's your worry? She's a phenomenal kid. Just teasing, of course. :P I'm biased, though, in that your sister's following the same path in many ways that my older daughter is who's a sophomore in college: similar reading interests, exceptional flute/piccolo player (and vocalist) and majoring in music, full academic scholarship, plus five family cats and assorted other pets... I'm a proud Mama, of course. :mrgreen: (And I promise everyone here that this is the only time that you'll have to listen to me brag about my kids.)

Since your sister liked The Silmarillion, Transom, consider getting her the related The Children of Hurin, another superb Tolkien read but much easier. And I agree with her that Tolkien's cosmology is very cool.

As for the Arthurian legends, my favorites are the the Mary Stewart books, though I thoroughly enjoy every Arthurian tale I can get my hands on. And being a young girl, once she's read something along the traditional story line, consider offering her The Mists of Avalon that offers a decent feminine perspective on these tales.

And does she by any chance like Mozart? I can recommend an excellent biography. I'm reaching here regarding her musical interests...

Cindy

Clemsy
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Post by Clemsy »

Mary Stewart's, The Crystal Cave... check
Mist of Avalon... check

Cindy, we really should compare bookshelves.

Here's one. I just brought this one up from my library for one of my kids, picked it up to give it a look see as I hadn't read it in a few years, got totally sucked in and inhaled all three books in a matter of a week when I really had important things to do!

Patricia McKillip's The Riddle Master of Hed

I've been wanting to check out the rest of her stuff for a long time. This woman has a master's grasp of legend and myth.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

Cindy B.
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Post by Cindy B. »

Clemsy, I'm never going to get anything else accomplished if you keep making reading recommendations. :wink:

***

And I'm moving away for a moment from readings that might speak to children and teens and on to adults, something that might interest you, Clemsy, when it comes to the symbolic and the mythic. Have you read any of Umberto Eco's fictional works? Most have heard of The Name of the Rose, of course, and Foucault's Pendulum is an excellent read, too. On the top of my stack to be read next is Baudolino. Are you familiar with these?

Cindy
If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s. --Jung

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Post by tbeusse »

In high school, I was in AP English and was therefore expected to read a lot of the classics.

The Heart of Darkness was particularly enjoyable, but after that our curriculum was bogged down with an endless series of books focusing on the plight of Africans and African-Americans.

Don't get me wrong, there were some good books in there. The Color Purple was a riveting read, Things Fall Apart was equal parts horrifying and enlightening. The problem was that there was absolutely zero diversity between the books.

For example, take Things Fall Apart. No sooner had we finished reading it than we moved on to Beloved. Immediately after that book, we were assigned Invisible Man to read. Then The Color Purple came along.

I'm not trying to say that these books are exactly the same, because that's not true. It's just that after a while, reading about racism and hardships and all those things becomes grating. I felt as though I was being punished for something.

I don't know. I hope I don't come across as racist to anyone, that's not my intent. Some Chaucer would have been nice, that's all.

[/i]

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Post by Clemsy »

tbeusse, similar thing happened to my son in one of his English classes. It was all rape stories all the time. (Jodi Picault, Alice Sebold...)

Interesting that your AP class didn't have a more broad range. AP classes usually have a rather rigid curriculum from the accredited college.

Just as an aside... I'm really convinced that The Bible needs to be studied. It really does. Not the whole thing, but the major stories and the major themes. There's just too much in literature and art that depends on that familiarity.

I just finished The Sound of Silence with my seniors. Very few got the allusion here:
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made.
Only the ones with a church going background, and they knew it instantly.

Something profound is being culturally lost.
Give me stories before I go mad! ~Andreas

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