When I left school, I swore that I would never again read a book because I "ought to". I haven't.
Also, that, at eleven, we read Ivanhoe in class, but the teacher picked out all the descriptive bits (including, believe it or not, the "range of bars above the glowing charcoal" sequence where Isaac is being threatened with torture) and not things like the tournament to study. The result was that I was completely put off Scott until I picked up Ivanhoe again at fourteen (my parents had bought me a nice edition when I said I was doing it at school - they were very proud of the fact that I had passed the eleven plus and was going to the grammar school of my choice) which was exactly the right age for me, and found that, guess what, I enjoyed reading Scott after all!
My parents didn't have money to buy many books, so I read what I wanted to read from the library (boy's adventure stories and pony books and science fiction - not fantasy at all until I was about 12) and I used my pocket money to buy American comic books and Armada and Puffin paperbacks - but I had junior school teachers who certainly did read to us. Though it is now more than fifty years ago, I can still remember one teacher reading Ernest Thompson Seaton to us - which fed my passion for natural history as well as fiction.
Bah! to current educational thinking if it loses this joy for children.
And Bah! to dunderheads who can't remember what they enjoyed reading as a child.
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Date: 2008-01-22 12:56 pm (UTC)Also, that, at eleven, we read Ivanhoe in class, but the teacher picked out all the descriptive bits (including, believe it or not, the "range of bars above the glowing charcoal" sequence where Isaac is being threatened with torture) and not things like the tournament to study. The result was that I was completely put off Scott until I picked up Ivanhoe again at fourteen (my parents had bought me a nice edition when I said I was doing it at school - they were very proud of the fact that I had passed the eleven plus and was going to the grammar school of my choice) which was exactly the right age for me, and found that, guess what, I enjoyed reading Scott after all!
My parents didn't have money to buy many books, so I read what I wanted to read from the library (boy's adventure stories and pony books and science fiction - not fantasy at all until I was about 12) and I used my pocket money to buy American comic books and Armada and Puffin paperbacks - but I had junior school teachers who certainly did read to us. Though it is now more than fifty years ago, I can still remember one teacher reading Ernest Thompson Seaton to us - which fed my passion for natural history as well as fiction.
Bah! to current educational thinking if it loses this joy for children.
And Bah! to dunderheads who can't remember what they enjoyed reading as a child.