ebonlock: (Brock pissed)
ebonlock ([personal profile] ebonlock) wrote2007-05-17 02:19 pm
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Ok so I know Ann Althouse is an ass, but I've got to admit I didn't realize quite how big an ass until I read this:

And why does reading even need to be a separate subject from history in school? Give them history texts and teach reading from them. Science books too. Leave the storybooks for pleasure reading outside of school. They will be easier reading, and with well-developed reading skills, kids should feel pleasure curling up with a novel at home. But even if they don't, why should any kind of a premium be placed on an interest in reading novels? It's not tied to economic success in life and needn't be inculcated any more than an interest in watching movies or listening to popular music. Leave kids alone to find out out what recreational activities enrich and satisfy them. Some may want to dance or play music or paint. Just because teachers tend to be the kind of people who love novels does not mean that this choice ought to be imposed on young people via compulsory education. Teach them about history, science, law, logic -- something academic and substantive -- and leave the fictional material for after hours.


...

This is exactly the mindset that has always made me seriously consider semi-automatic weapons and bell towers. The same mindset that sneers at "creative types", pats literature and art students on the heads and sadly murmurs, "But how are you going to make a living doing that?" The same mindset that put my editorial department on the bottom rung of the business totem pole, serene in its certainty that people don't really give a shit about quality content and decent writing. It's all about the benjamins, baby.

[identity profile] psyfic.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
You said it. Teaching kids reading without teaching them about literature is like teaching geography only without teaching them about each region's resources, and trade goods and the people who live there or their culture. She's the kind of person who helps paint the rest of us as "arrogant, uncultured Americans" everytime she travels or speaks or posts in a public forum.

[identity profile] ebonlock.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 03:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Best part? She's a professor herself. Think on that and be dismayed.

[identity profile] psyfic.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Only if she's from a genuinely accredited university, not one of the fundie uni's... which dismay me enough already.

[identity profile] phillipalden.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
As I writer I must admit sharing your horror and thoughts of high-powered rifles and clock towers. The one thing I don't like about computers is they distract from the magic of a good book and a quiet corner somewhere.

This woman is an obvoius moron.
ext_76751: (Dan Equus)

[identity profile] rickey-a.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 04:06 pm (UTC)(link)
totally unrelated to anything you just said

HI, I'm like a bad penny, I keep showing up.
I stumbled onto you through a journal of a friend, who had a friend who commented, who was from the bay area who belonged to [profile] ba_potterists Small World
so I just thought I'd say a quick hello.
How r u? Hope u r well.
:)

[identity profile] ebonlock.livejournal.com 2007-05-18 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello, LJ truly is a small world :)