Teacher Talk Tuesday

What is to become of the classics?

I'm going to cheat a bit here and discuss my book club discussion tonight as my teacher talk Tuesday... it'll flow, just trust me.

For book club this month we revisited a time old classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. Everyone, of course, loves this tale but we were all struck by how much more we got out of it as we re-read it as adults. It's crazy to think I/we truly loved it as much as we did. We couldn't help but ask ourselves, "how much could I have possibly understood at 14?"

The topic of conversation that struck me the most was, more or less, about history and more specifically the current teaching of American history. When reading a book such as this one, the content and language cannot be ignored. Word usage sets the scene better than any photograph could, we questioned the reaction amongst current high school readers. How does their frame of reference compare to our own? As we reflected on the items covered in our own history courses, the point was made of the current push towards "newer" content and "more current" issues. Now, I'm not here to argue against teaching current issues but I couldn't help but wonder, as we progress... what will we lose along the way? 

I'm a teacher... change is something I deal with everyday and will have to deal with throughout the course of my career. This doesn't change the fact that, frankly, progression can be hard to swallow. 

Thankfully, Mike and I have multiple copies of the fabulous piece of history and the great news there is, we can keep them for ourselves for forever and ever.