posted
As a children's librarian, I get to see all the summer reading lists assigned by local schools.
I find it both amusing and alarming that these lists contain quite a number of mistakes. In addition to mistakes in the use of possessives and in grammar (ENGLISH teachers write these things? *shudders*), authors' names and book titles are sometimes misspelled, and sometimes part of a book title is incorrect (e.g. The Files of Mrs. Basil Frank instead of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.
But the strangest mistake I've thus far encountered on a school reading list is the following:
quote:Ender's Game by Andrew Card
I mean, that's not even CLOSE!
Posts: 1512 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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To answer your question rivka, I teach 7th grade language arts. I have been lurking for a few weeks but this is my first post.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
OK this was the first thread I have posted in...better? You would think I'd know better (and leave it to y'all Hatrackers to be nitpicky) after how much I preach about accuracy in writing in my classroom. LOL!
Sands, as I am in TX and you are in Mass, I doubt it. But then again there are lots of us teachers out there who love Ender.
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Although OSC claims to have written Enders Game, I think that any reasonable thinker would recognize that he was much too young and inexperienced to have been the sole author of the work.
There are a number of competing theories as to the true source of Enders Game, however, the most common one demonstrates that the so-called Spielding manuscript is the likely source.
There is evidence that Reverend Saludin Speilding was working on a novel about a boy who saved the world. Although Rev. Spielding died before completing the manuscript, a friend of his, a Mrs Cindy Rickton knew of the manuscript and had access to it. OSC might claim that he did not know Mrs. Rickton before publishing Enders Game, however it is not hard to show that they could have had contact with each other as they both studied at Notre Dame.
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to put one and one together and recognize that Enders Game is simply a hoax that Mr. Card and Mrs. Rickton put together in order to defraud the public.
Posts: 258 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
""If you wanted to date ANY Hatracker who would it be?" by Sid Meier." ...? Odd, anyyyyways, whats language arts? Is that another name they invented for the course to make it seem fancy? I'm suspisious of High Schools seeing as how they repeat the same course year after year dispite the number incrementing by one.
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
You have to be a very special person to appreciate 8th graders. Fortunately, I am one such. *bows*
As for language arts. I suppose I should know why that term came into fashion. I don't even know when. I call it English because that way I get a capital letter, unlike lesser subjects such as algebra and social studies.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:I call it English because that way I get a capital letter, unlike lesser subjects such as algebra and social studies.
*chuckle*
I think it is called language arts rather than just English or reading to show that it incorporates both reading and writing (and somehow English implies just writing?). Reading at my school is a remedial course. I do think it is confusing though. One of my cousins thought I taught a variety of foreign languages and their cultures. Ha! I can order a taco at Taco Bell and that's about a foreign as I get unfortunately.
How about this? Stopper’s Contest by Orson Wells Fargo
Posts: 1319 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Mathematics and social studies get a capital letter if they are followed by a Roman numeral or other number... How odd that I learned that a few years ago in my 7th grade language arts class. For example, "Social Studies V" and "Calculus 34.5"
Posts: 62 | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
Language Arts is like Social Studies - an attempt to make a subject "broader" but with the result that its treatment is shallower.
The advent of Social Studies meant the slow death of the teaching of History and the quick demise of the teaching of Geography.
Language Arts has gone along with the end of the teaching of serious grammar (quick: Anyone born after 1980 ever have to diagram a sentence?). The name is fancier, but the result is weaker.
Except, of course, for a handful of "Language Arts" teachers who insist on actually teaching English. Thank heaven for the dinosaurs <grin>.
Posts: 2005 | Registered: Jul 1999
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posted
I'm inclined to think the things they've added to those subjects are more important than the things they've taken away.
For instance, government and economics are more critical to know than geography. Similarly, reading comprehension and writing content is more important than grammar.
Also... I was born in 1981 and had to diagram many a sentence. Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:Language Arts has gone along with the end of the teaching of serious grammar (quick: Anyone born after 1980 ever have to diagram a sentence?). The name is fancier, but the result is weaker.
Being a language arts teacher, I certainly agree with you in many ways. I did diagram sentences though even in college but I don't make my students do them now. Why? I don't have time. There are so many things I am required to cover to prepare my students for the dreaded standardized tests (in Texas where our *sarcasm* beloved president is from) and since diagramming sentences is not on the test, no one teaches it anymore. I swear I am going to start using the assistant principal's memos as grammar warm-ups. It is hard to believe the man graduated from college and he is my boss!
I also agree about how lame the history curriculum is. Why are we spending so much time teaching them about explorers in the new world and pioneers but nothing about modern history? Our kids know nothing of the cold war, Vietnam, or even WWII (the 8th grade language arts classes teach a unit on Anne Frank and the kids have no idea what the Nazis did until we tell them). The politics and modern history they do get is from MTV. And we wonder what is wrong with society....
I could go on and on about the problems with our education system, especially in Texas. Sorry for my little tirade. I am usually a much more positive person. The truth is I love my job and I know that I am specifically given the opportunities I have in order to make a difference.
posted
Mr. Card, I was born in '88 and I had to spend my eighth grade year diagramming sentences.
I don't remember anything I learned in that year of English. (Well, 3/4ths of a year.) Shame, as it was the last time I actually attended a public school for the majority of the year.
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that's not even CLOSE!
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No, but it is funny! Someone clearly has difficulty with reality v. fiction.![[Smile]](smile.gif)
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