so now obama has said what your kids can read in hs...

[Soonerjeepman]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/12/27/why-all-cool-kids-are-reading-executive-order-13423/?intcmp=obnetwork

So obama says kids need to read 70% informational txt in HS. My personal take is the fed gov should stay OUT of the education system.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

Here's what I found in California's Common Core Standards:

TEXT ILLUSTRATING THE COMPLEXITY, QUALITY, AND RANGE OF STUDENT READING 6-12
Literature: Stories, Dramas, Poetry Informational Texts: Literary Nonfiction

Grades 6-8
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1869)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (1876)
• “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost (1915)
• The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper (1973)
• Dragonwings by Laurence Yep (1975)
• Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred Taylor (1976)
• “Letter on Thomas Jeff erson” by John Adams (1776)
• Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass (1845)
• “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on May 13th, 1940” by Winston Churchill (1940)
• Harriet Tubman: Conductor on the Underground Railroad by Ann Petry (1955)
• Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck (1962)



9-10
• The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare (1592)
• “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817)
• “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe (1845)
• “The Gift of the Magi” by O. Henry (1906)
• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (1939)
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (1953)
• The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara (1975)
• “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention” by Patrick Henry (1775)
• “Farewell Address” by George Washington (1796)
• “Gettysburg Address” by Abraham Lincoln (1863)
• “State of the Union Address” by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1941)
• “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964)
• “Hope, Despair and Memory” by Elie Wiesel (1997)



11
• “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (1820)
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (1848)
• “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” by Emily Dickinson (1890)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925)
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston (1937)
• A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry (1959)
• The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri (2003)
• Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776)
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)
• “Society and Solitude” by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1857)
• “The Fallacy of Success” by G. K. Chesterton (1909)
• Black Boy by Richard Wright (1945)
• “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell (1946)
• “Take the Tortillas Out of Your Poetry” by Rudolfo Anaya (1995)
Note: Given space limitations, the illustrative texts listed above are meant only to show individual titles that are representative of a range of topics and genres. (See Appendix B for excerpts of these and other texts illustrative of grades 6–12 text complexity, quality

[SicEmBaylor]

I agree the Federal government should stay the hell out of education (I wish the government wasn't involved in education at any level but alas...).

Having said that, fiction is largely a waste of time and I like the idea of schools focusing more on information/non-fiction writing.

[StoopTroup]

You guys are acting like they are burning books.

My kids all go to public schools. They read more non-fiction than I did Comic Books as a kid.

I really think kids have really taken to books, ebooks and libraries more than I had to do in College.

[Soonerjeepman]

The Common Core standards is something the fed's want all schools to go to. They've tied $$ to it, so if the state (local school district) wants federal funding they must move towards CCS. To me this is "blackmail". The problem with education is MORE than WHAT is being taught, the lack of parental guidance, parental education, etc...but that is for another thread. You see all these new commercials (well I have anyway) that show the USA's position of ranking in the world with math/science/reading. What the don't tell you is the majority of those other countries don't have public education like we do. They only factor in the kids who are scoring high and we factor in everyone. Oranges to apples...in my opinion.

I'm not saying informational txt shouldn't be taught, just saying the feds need to stay out.

[Midtowner]

Blackmail? Sure, the Federal DOE is pretty unnecessary, but as long as they are around, insisting on minimum standards in education in order to receive federal spending is completely fair.

We can't educate parents. We get one shot--when the kids are legally required to attend schooling.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I agree the feds need to stay out. No Child Left Behind has been a disaster for public education. But the Obama didn't write the common core standards, and the fox news writer went John Birch Society on the scare tactics.

What really drives the curriculum is the assessment. The tests will move away from all multiple choice which is a goog thing.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I agree the Federal government should stay the hell out of education (I wish the government wasn't involved in education at any level but alas...).

Having said that, fiction is largely a waste of time and I like the idea of schools focusing more on information/non-fiction writing.

Sic, em, fiction is art. Art is culture.

[Midtowner]

What really drives the curriculum is the assessment. The tests will move away from all multiple choice which is a goog thing.

Your ability to answer multiple choice questions will determine your entrance into college and professional school. It's a skill kids need in order to get ahead.

[badger]

Sic, em, fiction is art. Art is culture.
Once upon a time, Baylor had a football team :P

[yermom]

Your ability to answer multiple choice questions will determine your entrance into college and professional school. It's a skill kids need in order to get ahead.

that's part of the problem too though

[Midtowner]

that's part of the problem too though

I don't necessarily disagree that multiple choice is flawed, but can you think of a better way to assess millions of students over a huge amount of material in a fair manner?

[KantoSooner]

What precisely is the controversy here? Did anyone read SJS's list? What's not to like on that list? Who should decide what is on the reading list? At some point, a teacher has to assign reading. If we have public education, then, to some degree, the 'decider' is going to be a government employee and thus, HORRORS, "the gubmint".

Or shall we simply meet under the spreading elm in the town square and suggest readings and practical experimentation to the inquisitive youth of our imaginary village?

Or perhaps we can have the Grant Wood preacher man assign 'baibul reedin's' to ejumacate our chilluns. Worked for Chris Hitchins. And Hunter Thompson. Though perhaps not in quite the way their respective clerics intended.

Reading is an essential life skill. It matters little what kids in high school read. Just that they do so. (If you are defined by the fiction, and poetry, that you read in High School, you are, by definition, a moron.You'll need to read about 10X + that volume to begin to be capable of carrying on a sensate conversation.)

School Board debates over the contents of reading lists are completely without merit. Let the little buggers read 'Lady Chatterly's Lover', 'Das Capital', 'The Naked Lunch' and the letters section of Penthouse. At least they will learn some new words. 'Catcher in the Rye'? Seriously? We're WORRIED about such things? Ladies, go back to your bridge parties, your fudge recipes and 'ring around the collar'. If your kids want to discuss topics that disturb you, REJOICE!

At least their minds are awake.

[SanJoaquinSooner]

I don't necessarily disagree that multiple choice is flawed, but can you think of a better way to assess millions of students over a huge amount of material in a fair manner?

They're moving to grading constructed responses with artficial intelligence programs. Students will either type their responses into computers or they will be scanned in. There will still be multiple choice portions.

[Midtowner]

I very much agree with the removal of fiction. Brave New World was an awesome book. Read it in freshman hon. English at McGuinness High School back in the early 90s. Orgie porgie ford and fun, kiss the girls and make them one--such a great message there. Compare that with, say, the Grapes of Wrath. We could have learned history while also learning about all of the symbolism and other literary gobbleteegook.

[KantoSooner]

Hell, why stop there? We all know that anything other than science, math and football should be eliminated.