LOL, I was eavesdropping on a convo once between a Social Studies teacher and an English teacher and they were discussing "Down these Mean Streets" and whether it was appropriate or not and how the English teacher approached the sections of the book, namely chapter 6 "Sex in the Can" in her class. This chapter has graphic descriptions of the many uses of hair oil in jail. The English teacher stated "Well we don't read it out loud."
This is remarkably silly, as nearly all examples of reading list censorship are, but I can't help but wonder why high school students would be reading Miller in the first place. He's not a great writer, and belongs in the long, long list of classic-wannabe 20th century authors. High school students should be reading the British and American canon, not supermarket bookshelf novels.
Henry Miller! Please!
Anyway, Miller's a dead white male. So even by postmodernist standards, they shouldn't have been reading him (I believe that in order to be worthy of being read, you have to have had at least one grandparent of an approved oppressed group, and either a full body tattoo or at least three visible piercings. Whether you can write is incidental these days.)
Can anything be worse than the drivel that the DOE has spent countless millions on to stock classroom libraries? While it's certainly a boon to have a lot of books in the classroom (I date back to the time when my "library" consisted of 20 tomes I collected through Troll Book Club points), it seems a shame that the powers that be can't distinguish well written books from idiotic pablum. Today, a child can easily pass eighth grade without having read a single book that could be considered a classic.
I'm sure there are some nice kickbacks for those higher-ups who choose the books that our kids read, because if books were chosen on merit alone, 90% of my current library would be replaced by Twain, Steinbeck, Crane, London, etc.
I realize that as dead white authors, these writers are way out of favor, but has anyone stopped to consider that the reason the DWAs have survived so long is that they're damn good writers?
In my opinion, Henry Miller doesn't belong in the classroom, but not because of the sex. He doesn't belong for the same reason that 90% of my library doesn't belong--his books just aren't good enough.
I had a discussion with one of my students today. First, I asked if her mom knew what she was reading. She told me her mom doesn't speak English. I teased her a little about her choice of books but then told her that she should keep on reading and read anything and everything that holds her interest. The only way she was really going to master English was through reading and speaking it. I did tell her to put a plain cover on the book.
I don't like Miller either, but I love Bukowski. However, I wouldn't teach Bukowski to high school kids. If they found it on their own it would be another thing.
Down These Mean Streets is very graphic, and given a choice, I wouldn't teach that either. Again, if kids found it on their own it would be another thing.
I'm not an english teacher, so I don't have a really balanced opinion, but as a parent I'd hope that things that were taught and required reading would be a) not explicit sex and violence (if it would have to be an R rated movie, it shouldn't be required K-12 reading--exceptions only granted for authentic classics, not just wanabes) and b) be reasonably well written (eg. Newberry award authors qualify, Twain and Doyle of course, but not just any random Scholastic book). On the other hand, I think it's fine, and probably desirable, for any and all of these things (sex and drivel) to be available in the library for kids to check out if they so choose.
The classroom teachers in my school made their own selections with the mayor's library money. We just had to make sure we had different levels so every child had a "just right book".
My principal did make other selections, but we got to spend $500 each on our library collection.
I agree--if it were an R-rated movie it shouldn't be required reading. I think those books ought to be in the library for kids who want them though.
I don't think there's a problem with the high school-age kids reading the likes of Henry Miller or his gal-pal Anais Nin, or Charles Bukowski, or Pauline Reage, or Georges Bataille or the Marquis de Sade or Erica Jong, and so on - but the problem would come in trying to *teach* those texts, you know with those freedom of speech problems we keep having here.
I'm a huge fan of Michel Houellebecq and have read most everything he's written and would recommend him to anyone, but I don't think I'd want to discuss the finer points of his work with a bunch of 15-year-olds.
I think something like "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" is a fine introduction to sexual/social development, taking things a bit slower than, say, "Story of the Eye" or "Tropic of Cancer" or "Fear of Flying."
If it's in the library, I am thrilled to see them read on their own. But were I still an English teacher, I would not be assigning anything that explicit. Assigning is one thing, reading on your own is another.
When I was a teen I went through a romance novel phase. I learned about all kinds of things besides romance in them. But I wouldn't have tried to use one for a class assignment.
Yeah, on a tangent, I'm much more strict about viewing of movies than I'd ever be about books. In fact, I can't think of a book I've removed from my kids' hands, though I can think of a few I'd want to, if it were to come to that!
Once upon a time, long ago, a kid could read most anything because they didn't have the visuals to go with the material. If they didn't understand parts of it, well, it just sort of washed over them and didn't sink in. I reread some things I know I read in elementary school (I did read most anything) and was amazed at what was in them -- it clearly made no impression on me at the time; I just didn't get it.
BUT, that was before cable and before kids saw sex or incredibly realistic and gory violence -- on movie screens, on TV (I remember when cable arrived). The first visual I really ever had for sex as a kid was at the neighbor's watching a movie on HBO -- ah ha, I realized, *that's* what I've been reading about!
Imagine nowadays. There's plenty of visuals floating around out there, particularly if you have cable. When my son was in 4th grade...another kid's mother was saying how her son's favorite movie was "Scary Movie." =:-0
I feel the same way about the lopping off of heads, the viewing of murder scenes, etc. In a book, your imagination can only show you, well, what it can imagine, so it's gonna be something you can think of -- but in a movie, well, it's someone else's adult imagination.
I have to agree with the earlier commenters on the reading/teaching split. I let my seventh graders read pretty much anything for independent reading -- I'm more concerned with the book's level of difficulty. And I spend too much time on the Haven't-Read-Anything-But-Captain-Underpants-In-
The-Past-18-Months club to worry about the kid who brought in her mother's copy of Where My Baby Daddy At? If they're motivated by the content and the book challenges their comprehension ability...hell yeah! The only situations in which I steer kids away from "racy" books are those in which the reader in question is extremely immature in comparison to his/her classmates.
That said, I am much more selective about texts we read as a whole class -- and remember, we're not allowed to venture into whole-class-novel-land, so these texts are generally limited to short stories, articles, and poems. There are scores of books I let kids read in class that I wouldn't dare read out loud, nor would I require the whole class -- or a small literature circle -- to read them. Which is not to say that my selections are especially conservative -- they're just very, very careful.
My whole public school teaching career has been in middle school, so I don't have much of a grasp on how differently I'd handle this issue with high school students.
During recent high school parent teacher conferences, I asked my 9th grader's ELA teacher about assigned reading, getting to the classics, etc. He said he doesn't assign whole books for them to read because most of the students won't do it and since their reading habits are already set, it would be impossible to get them all to read a whole book within a certain time frame. He pulls chapters and bits of books relevant to the lesson for the whole class. My child is a reader, but I found the teacher's attitude a little discouraging.
I'd be discouraged by that too. That's a negative attitude and a self-fulfilling prophesy.
I teach ESL, I love to teach novels, and I've found few things quite as gratifying as the comments from kids who tell me they'd never read a book in English before, and that I'd browbeaten and tortured them into doing so for the first time.
It's a pain to teach a novel, as you have to do extensive planning, but it's well worth it. I really like to trick kids into reading, and fool them into thinking it's a good thing.
At a tech workshop...
Believe me, I'd teach novels if I could! The justification we are given is that kids are at so many different levels that it's impossible to find an appropriate one for all of them.
A couple of years ago, a very bright and competent colleague of mine was forced to stop a novel unit while he was smack in the middle of it. Needless to say, the kids were pretty confused.
When I was in elementary school, I tried to read my parents' copy of "Finnegan's Wake." After a few pages, I took the book to them. "Is this book in English or not?" I asked with some indignation. I didn't try again till I was an English major in college taking a Joyce class. I considered it a stoner book.
I also started to read "Last Exit in Brooklyn" in elementary school. I sure wish I hadn't. I'm not old enough for that yet and I'm about to turn 55.
I waited till high school to try Henry Miller (boring), Jong (unpersuasive) and Nin (boring).
For sex tips, I recommend chapter 2 of "The Group." In fact, I'm proud to say I was the only girl in my social circle to read more than chapter 2.
I see no harm in letting ambitious readers try adult books. Except for "Last Exit."
"In my opinion, Henry Miller doesn't belong in the classroom, but not because of the sex. He doesn't belong for the same reason that 90% of my library doesn't belong--his books just aren't good enough."
Hear, hear!
"I don't think there's a problem with the high school-age kids reading the likes of Henry Miller or his gal-pal Anais Nin, or Charles Bukowski, or Pauline Reage, or Georges Bataille or the Marquis de Sade or Erica Jong"
Other than that they're hack writers who wrote trash? High school students should be reading Shakespeare, Dickens, Melville, Hemingway, and other authors of note, not the NYT editors' favorite masturbation material.
I have a friend who has both a BA and an MA in English Lit. We went to that awful remake of Midsummer Night's Dream a few years back, and I discovered while talking to her before it began that not only had she never read a single Shakespeare play, but she had never been ASKED to read a Shakespeare play.
Several years ago, at the dawn of the workshop mandate, I was in a Whitestone JHS and had the District 25 8th grade honors class. This was the one really good group I had in that school. I had a class set of Crane's Red Badge of Courage. The original, not the watered down version. I asked the ELA teacher on my team, a top flight teacher, if she'd like to team teach it with me. I would do the historical stuff, while she attended to the literary business. She said she'd be delighted, but her supervisor would have her head. She was told that she would be doing read alouds and turn and talks of the works of Gary Soto.
She warned me not to go it alone as Madame U, what we called her supervisor, would go ballistic if anyone deviated from the TC mandates, even in a different discipline like Soc St.
It's very sad that people need to tell teachers kids will read this, only this, and nothing else. And with your apparent knowledge and passion for this work, it seems the kids might have really missed something.
If teachers offer works of literature they're passionate about, kids can pick up on that. Unfortunately, if they offer chapters from some randomly assigned mediocre anthology, kids sense that too.
I've been very lucky in having supportive supervisors when I wished to teach literature. While I appreciate Shakespeare, I think it's more beneficial and motivating for my ESL kids to read contemporary literature. I love to teach The Joy Luck Club, for example.
"While I appreciate Shakespeare, I think it's more beneficial and motivating for my ESL kids to read contemporary literature. I love to teach The Joy Luck Club, for example."
Yes, but the *purpose* of teaching a novel in an ESL class is entirely different from teaching a novel in English class. You're teaching language; English classes are *supposed to be* teaching literature.
I was reviewing what we read in school; mostly 'Great Books'. Books that made one think. Plato, Sir Thomas More, Swift, Dante, Paine, Austen, Bronte, Dickens, Hardy, Mary Shelley, Buck, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Huxley, Orwell, Rand. Rachael Carson, Hansberry, and Shakespeare.
Henry Miller etc. would have been for the subway ride home.(Personally, I preferred P.G. Wodehouse!)
"Gary Soto"
As a teacher at my school likes to say, who did that guy blow at the Board of Ed?
Whoever it was, Walter Dean Myers has got their number too.
If you teach at an NYC middle school, you'd know what I mean.
I don't think I've ever seen one of my kids actually pick up one of those ubiquitous Gary Soto books -- and the average seventh grader in my classes reads at least two books a week.
It's sad that a "classroom library" filled with books that are (a) boring and/or (b) too easy and/or (c) way too hard and/or (d) crappy still counts...as long as there are some volumes on a bookcase, hey! It's a library! Ugh.
Reading all of Henry Miller's works was what the assignment was. His books were not even in the school library. Under those conditions, is it acceptable that a high school student should do a profile of a writer whose works were once deemed obscene? Is censorship and the fight against it a worthwhile topic for a high school kid?
There is some very delicious irony in this, and clearly the kid and her parents missed the point of having Miller on the list at all.
Here in Texas it's more likely that the books complained about will be the texts, when they mention things in biology like "evolution" or in health like "prophylaxis."
Kids who are taught that preventing HIV does NOT include the use of condoms, as state law requires in Texas, may not be ready for Henry Miller either. But then, it's clear that the legislators never read him, and never had the revelation that he wasn't that great a writer. They still don't read for the value of literature.
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