Junior High School Text Books: Inexcusably Morbid
Junior High English text books should be fun and entertaining, right? The reading sections should be interesting, and intended for young kids, RIGHT?!
Apparently not. I recently looked through a text book for junior high kids, and was highly disappointed in the chosen subject matter for the reading sections. Among the pages of grammar points, dialogues, and fill-in-the-blank exercises which make up most of this text, there are 3 passages for reading. The first was about....The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and death. The second was about.... just death. Two out of three were about death!
There is no reason for this whatsoever. Hiroshima and bomb-dropping belong in history class! Or perhaps in a different kind of story where they can be properly discussed. But this was not even a historical passage. This was a sob-story (pure dramatized fiction) told from the point of view of A TREE. A tree under which two young people came to die. A young girl who comforted a little boy, and then died herself. This is not educating kids about history- if it was, I wouldn’t be so outraged. Kids should enjoy English. They should have fun stories to read. Something they want to talk about with their friends or teachers. Not bombs and death. This is sad. This is ridiculous. Kids do not like this stuff. Of course literature can be inspiring or beautiful and ALSO sad, violent, and depressing, but that is with a good plot and characters. That is for literature class. This text book “story” is not literature meant for pondering, philosophy, or literary critique in the way that kids read stories in their native language and then analyze it. This story is for teaching English. It should be FUN!
Story number two- the classic, “Freddy the Leaf.” Now, I like Freddy the Leaf. I read it as a kid with my mom. We cried. Great story to teach kids about life and death. Not a great story to teach kids English. It’s very sad. Out of all the fun, cool, interesting topics to choose from, why Freddy the Leaf?!
All this makes me wonder...who put this text book together?! I can only imagine- a bunch of old Japanese men. Perhaps war survivors themselves. Possibly very nice old guys. But they apparently know nothing about what kids these days enjoy. About what motivates them and makes them want to read more and study more. It’s really pathetic and unfortunate that kids have to study this when there are so many more interesting things out there.
And one more thing guys...take out the bit about the young girls waiting in line for the Shamisen concert. This is 2012!!!
Junior High English text books should be fun and entertaining, right? The reading sections should be interesting, and intended for young kids, RIGHT?!
Apparently not. I recently looked through a text book for junior high kids, and was highly disappointed in the chosen subject matter for the reading sections. Among the pages of grammar points, dialogues, and fill-in-the-blank exercises which make up most of this text, there are 3 passages for reading. The first was about....The nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima and death. The second was about.... just death. Two out of three were about death!
There is no reason for this whatsoever. Hiroshima and bomb-dropping belong in history class! Or perhaps in a different kind of story where they can be properly discussed. But this was not even a historical passage. This was a sob-story (pure dramatized fiction) told from the point of view of A TREE. A tree under which two young people came to die. A young girl who comforted a little boy, and then died herself. This is not educating kids about history- if it was, I wouldn’t be so outraged. Kids should enjoy English. They should have fun stories to read. Something they want to talk about with their friends or teachers. Not bombs and death. This is sad. This is ridiculous. Kids do not like this stuff. Of course literature can be inspiring or beautiful and ALSO sad, violent, and depressing, but that is with a good plot and characters. That is for literature class. This text book “story” is not literature meant for pondering, philosophy, or literary critique in the way that kids read stories in their native language and then analyze it. This story is for teaching English. It should be FUN!
Story number two- the classic, “Freddy the Leaf.” Now, I like Freddy the Leaf. I read it as a kid with my mom. We cried. Great story to teach kids about life and death. Not a great story to teach kids English. It’s very sad. Out of all the fun, cool, interesting topics to choose from, why Freddy the Leaf?!
All this makes me wonder...who put this text book together?! I can only imagine- a bunch of old Japanese men. Perhaps war survivors themselves. Possibly very nice old guys. But they apparently know nothing about what kids these days enjoy. About what motivates them and makes them want to read more and study more. It’s really pathetic and unfortunate that kids have to study this when there are so many more interesting things out there.
And one more thing guys...take out the bit about the young girls waiting in line for the Shamisen concert. This is 2012!!!
update!! Another story starts like this...
ReplyDelete"Why did my grandmother die? I want to die too," cried a boy of fourteen. "I hate my father and mother."
Fun stuff. Really.
I'm really for your opinion! I also read a DEATH STORY in the text book.Interesting story for me (over 30). but it's not Interesting for kids!
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