>> > a couple of years ago, one of my students (in my sci-fi class)(taught
>> > during summer school) blurted out, "why can't we just read this stuff for
>> > fun???!!!"
Shouldn't the fun reading be the FIRST reading--and then you can show them
the fun has only started!
For most educated
>people this adds to the fun.
Exactly.
>Forcing yourself to devote hours to a book, story, or poem you dislike would
>be sheer hell.
Most of us do it only once and then remember the painful process.
I'm sure that the students in my SF and
>gender class thought I was "privileging boring but intellectually
>complex texts" when I assigned The Female Man and The Door into Ocean,
>two books I love, when they'd rather have been reading easier stories.
What exactly did they object to in Door Into Ocean? I would love to teach
it, but I've had a bad experience before--I taught More Than Human, and the
students were universally thumbs down--I haven't yet figured out if it was
because it was too dated, not interesting to them, or if my presentation
fell flat.
>
>Whoever that professor was who you heard recommend to people that they
>should write about works that they don't like, s/he was an idiot (on this
>one topic, at least) and certainly doesn't represent the normal run of
>academics, scholars, and critics.
Usually those who make such pronouncements are the ones who "talk a good
game" but rarely publish--and rarely put out publishable work.
> > i wanted to ask this person why the hell was she in college?
Most of us in academia would like students to leave the class with more
than they came in with. A critical/analytical view can serve them well
throughout their lives. They ARE in college, not a reading circle. They
can have fun while they're learning (I don't know any good teacher who
wouldn't rather have fun with the class)--but it does take work--and so
there will always be some grumbles! Until students learn that expanding
their minds CAN be fun, I also wonder what they're doing in college other
than marking time--or avoiding the world of work. Let's hope the
revelation hits them soon so that the time in higher education isn't mostly
wasted.
Sue Hagedorn
hagedors@vt.edu
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:06:01 PDT