The water came over me and choked me;the sea covered me completely,
and seaweed wrapped around my head.
I went down to the very roots of the mountains,
into the land whose gates lock shut forever
No. Most of Chapter 2 is left out. Only the last verse, 2:10, is kept: "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah up on the beach, and it did." I love all that "seaweed wrapped around my head" and "land whose gates lock shut forever" but it just doesn't exactly scream Kindergarten!
The list is a tad conservative. Eleventh graders read “What is Capitalism?” by Ayn Rand and “Flattering Unction” (excerpt, Chapter 1 from “The Vision of the Anointed”) by Thomas Sowell. But I would think the bluest teachers — if they're any good — would love to teach from those texts.
ADDED: The Texan kids must read Jonah in Kindergarten, but they never read "Moby-Dick" (or any Melville).
In Grade 6, they get the words of Jesus, listed with the title "Do Not Be Anxious": "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
How wonderful to engage with that with 6th graders — especially with the accompanying texts: “All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriot, “The Power of the Dog” by Rudyard Kipling, “A White Heron” by Sarah Orne Jewett, “The Peace of the Wild Things” by Wendell Berry. Lots of animals and then Look at the birds of the air.
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55 comments:
Ayn Rand is not a very good writer. I humbly suggest "The Road to Serfdom" instead.
In Colorado- Ten ACLU are pushing disgusting incest sex books, in public school libraries.
All while they train their cultists (BS-NOW style) to lie about conservatives banning books.
Based on national test scores, no matter what criticisms the NYT writer has about the list (mainly not "diverse" enough) at the least the kids in Texas can actually read.
Ten = the.
Gov Polis lies about Colorado's education statistics.
All is not well in our public schools.
I suspect it’s better the little ones read that than “Chauncey Has Three Daddies” or “He’s My Mom”.
"by the very fact of its persistence over time, has become part of our shared culture."
This is so true. When a radical feminist does an agenda driven "translation" of The Odyssey and defends it by saying that nobody knows what Homer was really thinking, I say that that is irrelevant, sind the survival of the version that we have has been validated by thousands of years of survival, and it is absolutely true that it might be different than the one that Homer recited from memory. Homer wasn't some God whose thoughts were sacred, it's an interesting thought experiment to wonder whether, if Homer's actual version had been written down absolutely faithfully to his intent, it would have lived as long.
Taking a text that has survived for 2,500 years and changing it in an. exercise in ax grinding is nothing but the old tactic of taking a respected institution, killing it, skinning it, and wearing it's skin as a play for the authority of the piece of art that you killed.
"Ayn Rand is not a very good writer."
It's kind of funny how a poor writer has managed to capture so much of the cultural headspace. I just finished a novel, Stoner, published in 1965, and only really discovered in the early 2000s, it's a great novel, but he makes writing mistakes that no novel written today and published by a major house would contain. So what?
Over polished content, whether it is pop music or novels, lacks humanity.
Personally I loved reading the KJV of the Bible as a kid and early teen. It prepared me to tackle Shakespeare! Shakespeare is much easier to read if you are fluent in the KJV version of the Bible.
The leftists who know nothing of the Bible other than "Jesus said love everyone so that means I can be as degenerate as possible" probably greatly struggle with Shakespeare, Poe, Hawthorne, and even Irving. Assuming they even know who any of those authors are. They are all up to speed on "How to rape a monkey with your mommy" though... the approved San Fran Curriculum!
"The list is a tad conservative. Eleventh graders read “What is Capitalism?” by Ayn Rand and “Flattering Unction” (excerpt, Chapter 1 from “The Vision of the Anointed”) by Thomas Sowell. But I would think the bluest teachers — if they're any good — would love to teach from those texts."
I they were any good, they would read those texts, and others, and no longer be so "blue."
But they won't read them; they will denounce them and substitute lefty stuff.
Bah. Those aren’t classics. Make the little buggers read Virgil, Ovid, and Cicero. In Latin. In the good old days elementary schools were called Latin schools. Meliora cogito!
We read from the Bible every morning when I was in grammar school many moons ago. Right before we said the pledge of allegiance. In New Jersey.
“But I would think the bluest teachers — if they're any good — would love to teach from those texts.”
…I don’t know why you would think that. Generous to a fault, I’d suppose…
…amazing Sowell is on the list. Just read him…
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
Well…yech. What godawful translation is that? At least the KJV is poetic: “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Jaq at 10:31 is right. Stoner is a great novel. I recently read it for the second time--the first was maybe 10 years ago. I'll read it again. Writing styles change--Hemingway bores me these days.
Richard Feynmann said “If you can’t explain something to a first-year student, then you haven’t really understood it.”
The big book of AA says “Most good ideas are simple”. I read that as profound because it maybe that, if true that we are wired to pay attention to novelty, because at one time, and some may argue we still need it (now more than ever) at one time we need it, to pay attention to novelty, in order to literally survive. So novelty, instead of simplicity has taken a higher status in the pantheon of our attention.
The simple stories have unrecognized depth and weight.
Casey at the Bat?
WHY would they make small, innocent children read Such a SAD tale?
There is NO JOY in that tale.. NO JOY
small children Don't Need heartbreak, they Need HOPE!
let them gaze upon classic artwork, like
Cassius Marcellus Coolidge's "One to Tie, Two to Win"
https://www.mutualart.com/Artwork/-One-to-Tie--Two-to-Win-/915184F28535BF55ED6F8EAA9A0BF409
Blue states will never assign books like that. Not enough racially diverse authors.
Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm should be required reading.
I cited 1984 in a recent post-trial brief. The judge ignored what she saw with her own eyes. Soon to be reversed!
The eating part in Jesus parable could also read, id imagine, as a metaphor for what we pay attention to, what we consume. Indeed, "Man shall not live by bread alone"... I had to look up the rest of the verse because I had the first part seared. But the second part is really the nuts and bolt of the verse. The second part would probably be "skipped over" by Texas.
The song 'All my ex's live in Texas' have just found heretofore unrecognized meaning. It's just what hit songs do... but I repeat myself.
ai: "Heretofore is a very formal adverb that simply means before the current time, or until now. Hitherto is another very formal adverb that means until the current time or before now. The two words are synonyms and severely unpopular.
Even in legal and scholarly realms it is better to use simpler synonyms such as before, previously, and so far."
But Noooo. I had to sound profound.
"The water came over and choked me" etc.is a later interpolation. There's no mention of being inside a big fish.
""The water came over and choked me" etc.is a later interpolation. There's no mention of being inside a big fish."
Sure there is, just not in those verses. The excerpt the kids read does not contain the verses I quoted. The "fish" is very much there.
The kids read: "At the Lord's command a large fish swallowed Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights" and "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah up on the beach, and it did."
Husband went to the public library in our village just north of Madison and asked where the books by Thomas Sowell would be. Librarian asked “who”? Husband explained and like a good liberal she said “never heard of him!” They had to order the book through inter library loan.
gilbar - agreed. Children need innocence, hope, laughter, and learning.
The left seek to destroy - thru child abuse.
btw- the leading dem in CA gov race lost track of over 300,000 illegal children.
Leftist media and dems deny they lost track of over 300,000 illegal immigrant children. Sickening.
"Fisheye For the Straight Guy" would be a fisherman show, echoing "Duck Dynasty"
“The kids read: "At the Lord's command a large fish swallowed Jonah, and he was inside the fish for three days and three nights" and "Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah up on the beach, and it did."”
And the kids are going to imagine what Jonah would look like as three day old spit-up. Something to dream about.
Vance is correct. The KJV does help with understanding language and cadence. It helped me tremendously when I was working at a 17thC historic site. Our old church used it, but it was an UCC church in the early 70s, with a lot of 2nd Generation Scottish Independents (i.e. my grandmother), not whatever it has since become. Our present Lutheran church doesn't, but I still recite the prayers from the KJV.
From the Bible I would expect they leave out Revelations 6:1-8
“… part of our shared culture.” But the mission of blue state teachers, who likely assume they can learn nothing from Texans, is to destroy our shared culture.
I conversed with a young college educated female coworker frequently on topics like this. Her parents were two different religions- and brought her up in neither leaving it to her to choose as an adult. With no actual background in how to do that. Also missed the non-biblical lessons of the tortoise and the hare and other stories in Aesop's fables. Also missed out on the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen. So basically, she wasn't familiar with the Western canon of childhood tales that encompassed life lessons in easy to understand forms.
So when she got to college and in class they were talking about of these stories, she was totally lost. Apparently they're not taught in schools very widely. I know my children are familiar with them. We have all the books in the house. And they all learned to read before kindergarten. Yep, we gave an unfair life's advantage to our children being the evil white oppressors we are.
"Power of the Dog"? Eternally sad. A lesson in responsibility and duty to be learned for a lifetime.
When I was in second grade, our teacher read our class "Charlotte's Web," a chapter a day. When Charlotte died, all the children wept. But I don't believe any of the parents came a-complaining.
Did it sink in? More than sixty years later, I still believe that giving one's life to give others life is the bravest death.
“Also missed the non-biblical lessons of the tortoise and the hare and other stories in Aesop's fables.
Would be interesting to see what kids would think of Zeno’s paradox of the Tortoise and Achilles.
It takes time to read through Moby Dick, and there will be enough time, but maybe not during one's school years. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a snippet from Moby Dick on the list, but that would only be an excerpt.
Reading the snippet from Jonah would be useful if you get to the "drowned man" motif in 20th century literature (Eliot, etc.)
Heh. When the uproar commences (and we know it will) and the lefties scream about the inclusion of a book by Thomas Sowell, conservative, will the media display pictures of him?
If the young are conservative, it's because they question their liberal and radical teachers. Making the young read Rand or Sowell or Hayek may not have the intended effect. If I were made to read them, rather than discovering them on my own, I might be a socialist too.
I don't know, Lazarus; the young today are forced to read all sorts of progressive crap, and it seems to be having an effect. If you are not made to read Rand or Sowell or Hayek in your youth, how will you know they exist?
"I don't know, Lazarus; the young today are forced to read all sorts of progressive crap, and it seems to be having an effect."
Different effects on young men and women. Men are inherently more rebellious and all of this over-engineering of school as places to be good and obedient have sent them in the other direction. Gen Alpha males are waay more likely to be conservative than their XX partners. If anything the overt progressivism in the classroom is a turnoff to these modern Johnny Strablers.
“"Power of the Dog"? Eternally sad. A lesson in responsibility and duty to be learned for a lifetime.”
You want sad, give them Updike’s “Dog’s Death”.
“It takes time to read through Moby Dick, and there will be enough time, but maybe not during one's school years.”
I and my classmates had to read Moby D in high school. I don’t think we got much out of it though. If we had to render whale blubber into lamp oil I suspect we’d be lost, despite the extremely lengthy and detailed exposition given in the book.
𝘑𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘺 𝘍𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥...
𝘞𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘮𝘢𝘳 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘰. 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘥𝘨𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦. 𝘐𝘯 𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘑𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘺.
And then one day in suburban NJ my 2nd grade teacher Miss (maybe Mrs...) Paine walked in, closed the bible that sat open on the it's small lectern, and placed it on shelf where it sat until the end of the school year.
I will also mention my 2nd grade teacher was my 2nd grade Sunday school teacher, my 1st grade teacher my 1st grade Sunday school teacher, and my kindergarten teacher the choir director at my church for both children's and adult choir.
Moved to the capital region of NY between 2nd and 3rd grade year. My 3rd grade teacher didn't attend my church.
There was large albeit informal tie between church and state in many areas. That no longer exists, apparently, anywhere in the USA.
Yes, I was thinking more of boys like I was, rather than girls who just wanted to absorb everything teachers said.
Before feminism, women tended to be more conservative than men. Maybe the current trend is related to those in authority in the educational system being liberal or progressive.
Ayn Rand is not a very good writer because she overdoes the perfection of John Galt.
I also read and enjoyed (if that's the right word, as it's a depressing story) "Stoner" a couple of years ago. It resonated with me, as I've spent more than half of my adult life in academia.
I read "Moby Dick" for the first time when I was around 40 and loved it, even the chapters about whaling that everyone hates. The language and cast of characters were enchanting. One just has to be patient and persistent. It's not a read for the beach. I hope to read it again some day, though there are a lot of great books on my list to read for the first time.
“she overdoes the perfection of John Galt.”
Intentionally so, in her own words, because people misunderstood the imperfection of Howard Roark. Alas, neither Atlas Shrugged or The Fountainhead are on the list, so your observation is irrelevant.
Commenters at the NYT were surprisingly copacetic with the list. I like that everyone in Texas will have these works in common. That’s kinda cool.
Ayn Rand is a terrible fiction writer, but early on, she was a great essayist and literary critic, and there's much to choose. How can anyone justify leaving the Bible out of literary or cultural studies but impose folklore of foreign cultures?
I am with Vance et al. There's nothing like the Authorised Version. I am a 100% dyed in the wool heathen but there are so many chill passages in the AV even for heathens.
Tina, I suspected very few of them think they have the slightest need to justify themselves to hoi polloi.
I found Stoner to be one of the most depressing and disappointing novels I have ever read. Even though his wife doesn't love him, doesn't need him, doesn't like sex and doesn't even care that he's sleeping with another woman, the guy abandons the one woman he ever loved because it might hurt his pathetic academic position, and accepts her being banished from the school, never to be heard from again, so he can live out his life as an unaccomplished loser professor. What the hell?
When I was at university and I was taking a course on plant genetics, on the first day of baseball season the professor came to the lectern and recited Casey At The Bat. Half a dozen asian students in the front row furiously scribbled notes as he spoke.
[begin virtual italics]From the Bible I would expect they leave out Revelations 6:1-8[end virtual italics]
Why stop at verse 8?
gadfly said...
"Ayn Rand is not a very good writer because she overdoes the perfection of John Galt."
How would you know? You've never built anything in your life.
These Bible stories, like Jonah and the whale must have been great oral stories told to a largely illiterate population. But they understood the meanings and the messages.
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