This new piece, from Northwestern University professor Gary Saul Morson, is one that should be read by anyone affiliated with education, and most definitely by English teachers specifically.
If one of the fundamental goals of education is to create a sense of morality and empathy, and an awareness of the complexity of human life, there is no better tool than literature. Nothing else allows us to place ourselves psychologically in an endless array of life situations so that we may improve our understanding of the world and its human inhabitants. Literature is fundamental to societal interactions and to individual development. And the decline in literary study can largely be blamed on those most responsible for protecting it. Morson writes:
"Some literary critics and teachers have tried to “de-literize” literature. They try to remove the essential literary act of experiencing other points of view by treating literature as propaganda that endorses what one already believes, or by only assigning works by approved authors with an approved message — the simpler and less ambiguous the better. That is what so many high school (and college) English teachers do, not only because it is gratifying to get students to share one’s own beliefs, but also because it is a lot easier to teach such works. One can do it without ever having loved a literary work at all. One reason for the current “crisis in the humanities” and the rapid decline in enrollments in literature courses may be that students are bound to wonder why they should put in the hard work to read long books only to learn what they already knew."
Read the whole article, then put it in your files or post it on your office wall. Remind yourself why literature matters--not just for our minds, but for our souls. And pass on that message to everyone you know.
If one of the fundamental goals of education is to create a sense of morality and empathy, and an awareness of the complexity of human life, there is no better tool than literature. Nothing else allows us to place ourselves psychologically in an endless array of life situations so that we may improve our understanding of the world and its human inhabitants. Literature is fundamental to societal interactions and to individual development. And the decline in literary study can largely be blamed on those most responsible for protecting it. Morson writes:
"Some literary critics and teachers have tried to “de-literize” literature. They try to remove the essential literary act of experiencing other points of view by treating literature as propaganda that endorses what one already believes, or by only assigning works by approved authors with an approved message — the simpler and less ambiguous the better. That is what so many high school (and college) English teachers do, not only because it is gratifying to get students to share one’s own beliefs, but also because it is a lot easier to teach such works. One can do it without ever having loved a literary work at all. One reason for the current “crisis in the humanities” and the rapid decline in enrollments in literature courses may be that students are bound to wonder why they should put in the hard work to read long books only to learn what they already knew."
Read the whole article, then put it in your files or post it on your office wall. Remind yourself why literature matters--not just for our minds, but for our souls. And pass on that message to everyone you know.