It's "tyger" Letty. The more confusion, the more thinking, I believe, heh heh.
England is, indeed, one of the most dumbed-down nations in the world. Most of our populace sadly read 'The Sun,' which is a horrid mix of Murdoch's propaganda, celebrity gossip and breasts. We are one of the few countries around the place that has such a newspaper as its most highly read. In comparison, hardly anyone reads the Independent-- a quality independent journal.
I'll find the link.
Wonderful idea, Cav! I would pitch Jane Austen as a close second, with her run on lines, and indiscriminate use of commas semi-colons.
Good idea drom. I have to say, how dare you call America dumbed-down. That's anti-American.
Heh! Heh! Well, I get the Orlando News Journal once a week, but the only things that I read are the clues to the New York Times puzzle.
Wasn't Mrs. Malaprop a character in one of Jane Austen's novels? Based on a rather scrambled egg memory, I recall it might have been Pride and Prejudice. Don't want to look it up.
:LOL:! But I didn'--
*Is carried away under the Patriot act, despite her not being a patriot.*
dròm_et_rêve wrote::LOL:! But I didn'--
*Is carried away under the Patriot act, despite her not being a patriot.*
Only Canadians can make subtle jokes like that re: England, America, dumbed down. :wink:
Looking back, I find myself with some bit of professional pride. I included everything in my approach to Humanities. (pats self on back)
Malaprop
Mrs. Malaprop was a character in Sheridan's play 'The Rivals,' which has a mad story on how it became what it is; it was a complete failure, Sheridan rewrote it within three days, and it became a great success. I never much liked it, myself.
It isn't even Shakespeare on which their grammar is being tested, really:
'For example in a question about Henry V pupils were asked to write about people they admired. In a section on Twelfth Night they were asked to outline their views of fashion, given the character Malvolio's strange dress habits.'
Check this out:
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/
Maybe, just maybe it IS deliberate.
I have a new course in mind. "Shakespeare and it's misuse: An argument for home schooling."
When I studied Shakespeare, we read it out loud. It amazed me that most of the kids could barely read, let alone give the prose any life. Damn, the words tripped so easily over the tongue, I was often called to read the soliloquys. Sometimes I used humorous voices, just to keep the others interested. Luckily, I had a teacher who understood. I think that Shakespeare must be taught as a living language, but how to communicate that beauty to the young 'uns is beyond me.
Alas, Cav. I had a teacher in college that called on me to read Poe. She was really the saddest excuse for a professor that I have ever seen. One of her exam questions was:
Why didn't Poe use a lovely kitchen with yellow organdy curtains as background for his poem, "The Raven"...duh. I wrote everything that I knew about the man as just punishment for her el stupido question.
I did try and get dating couples to read the soliloquys in Shakespeare. They loved the idea of "star crossed lovers" in Romeo and Juliet. You know how teenagers are. Everything is drama.
That's an interesting book, Letty. It's probably a lot of propaganda, but-- well, we know that a fool can't spare his tongue to catch the truth.
That course would be great, Cav; perhaps we three, in ten years from now, should teach it. One can't be homeschooled over in England; one has to go to school, which means that there are thousands of bullied victims who never get qualifications.
In school, I was always in top sets for everything; not for any particular brilliance, but because I worked and worked to get an A in everything, and none but a few bothered like I did. Yet, in those top sets, none of them could read Shakespeare with passion or without stuttering and being unable to read the words. They couldn't even read Wilde. It was painful to hear them do Macbeth; I was Lady Macbeth and Lady Macduff, because people didn't want to read more than a few lines each act, and it was just the teacher and I and one other boy (a globe-trotting-rock-star manqué, who was horribly betrayed.)
How one can present it is vividly; audiovisually; through frequent Shakespeare plays being acted out by students; by one lesson out of six being spent considering how Shakespeare's themes in a given play effect us still; and by fighting this 'happy to be stupid' culture that's growing in England and, probably, elsewhere.
I think 'happy to be stupid' originated in America. As for Letty's story of Poe, yes, what a truly dumbass question, most likely composed when thinking of how she could redecorate her kitchen. I am not opposed to using film versions of Shakespeare in the classroom, as an addendum to the text, provided they follow the text, to stimulate interest, and show how wonderful the words are, and how deeply felt by the characters (actors) who utter them.
Hey! Take it easy on my flag, Cav. The University of Virginia has some sharp folks in charge.
Too bad I didn't get to have a lot of them.
