[stylist] Catcher, high school, and changes

[Vejas]

I like your son's idea. I  really enjoyed the writing style of Speak, which I read before my eighth grade year and which my parents were somewhat reluctant to let me read, for the simple reason of my age.
I was required to read The Curious Incident before freshman  year and did not like it.  While I am a great fan of lots of UK books, I'm not really sure what made this British book so enticing as to be put on American shelves. The images were not described well on Bookshare and were vital to understanding parts of the story, so I had to go over them with my parents from a copy from the bookstore. That being said, that kind of subject matter is not my style.
Vejas  

> On Oct 14, 2016, at 06:35, Chris Kuell via stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Vejas,
> 
> No--I didn't care for 'Catcher' in high school, and no, I couldn't relate to
> Holden.
> But, I was an angsty teenager at that time, and I pretty much didn't like
> anything--especially assigned reading. I remember distinctly my mother
> lecturing me to try smiling once in a while, that "High school is the best
> days of your life." And I thought--Christ, if that's the case, just give me
> a gun right now and let's get it over with (sound a little like Holden?)
> 
> Another book that I was forced to read in high school that I re-read when my
> kids had to read it was 'A Separate Peace'. This one, however, I still
> didn't like. I had a better appreciation for the theme of 'sometimes we do
> things, and we don't even know why, but instantly regret that we did them'.
> But I've never related to rich people, and I thought the whole mock trial
> was just ridiculous. 
> 
> Now, as it turns out my son started his first year as a high school English
> teacher this August. He still lives at home, so we talk every day about how
> his classes went and what he might try to keep it interesting. One thing is
> to use more contemporary novels, although of course some books, like
> 'Catcher', are still very worthwhile. So with his seniors, he had them read
> 'The Road', and they are watching the movie this week, and they will write
> papers comparing and contrasting the two. He let his sophmores pick between
> 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime', 'The Bell Jar', and
> 'Catcher'--for those who hadn't read it already. Next they will all read
> 'Into the Wild', and he's going to have them design their own project in
> which they do something that is completely out of their comfort zone, and
> then write about it. His freshmen read 'Speak', which, if you don't know, is
> a YA novel about a high school girl getting raped at a party, and then
> refusing to speak afterwards. Next they are doing 'Of Mice and Men', and
> after that he's going to let them pick their next book (for the beginning of
> the year, he wanted them doing the same book so he could help them develop
> their writing).
> 
> So he's instituting changes to the standard English class, which I hope
> leaves his students with fonder memories of high school English than I had.
> 
> Chris
> 
> 
> 
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