Comment on american culture

• arken@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Well, lead a horse to water etc, doesn’t mean we should stop making teens read books in school they wouldn’t be exposed to otherwise. At least now you have both read and formed an opinion on two of the most influential and well regarded works of world literature. (And hopefully they also made you read a lot of other literature in diverse styles and genres.)

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  • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    The problem is not about “reading books they would not read otherwise”. Sadly, many, if not most, kids don’t get exposed to books anymore except in school. And then they are confronted with unlikable stuff that makes them shy away from ever touching a book again.

    I still hope that one day the people who decide what children and teens should read in school get their elitist heads out of their asses and actually try to get kids to read because they enjoy reading a book. Problem is that most people in that area seem to hate books that actually sell in the shops because people like to read them. Like I said about Reich-Ranizky once: he would not notice a good book if it bit him.

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    • arken@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      So the obvious solution is they should read more books, more varied stuff, not less. Popular, niche, basic, normative, weird, etc.

      Of course, your assumption that all teens hate Kafka just because you do is demonstrably false. The assumption that books sell simply because they are actually better and more enjoyable to read is also false, there are a lot of other factors at play.

      The kids that enjoy reading will find what is pushed in the book shops anyway, but kids from working class homes will never be exposed to anything else - and therefore have no chance to decide if they like it or not.

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      • Treczoks@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

        Of course, your assumption that all teens hate Kafka just because you do is demonstrably false.

        Ask my class. They all considered him seriously mind-fucked.

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