I should hope that no doubt exists as to this blog's position as regards Imaginative Literature: we dislike it and wish it abolished. "Fiction" of any sort is a chimera and a snare, and the men who write it, I suppose, are wretched fellows who write these things for a drink.
We were thus disappointed to learn that the wildly popular Common Core standards sweeping the nation don't actually require English teachers to stop inflicting Shakespear and Milton upon innocent 14-Year-Olds. But we are heartened to discover that school administrators across the nation are confused and bloody-minded and rotten enough to tell Scout to piss off.
The problem with Literature is that it is all lies. A person named Ravitch disagrees.
if you add up all the reading that students encounter across science, mathematics, history, and other subjects, English teachers could teach no informational text at all, and the student would still get at least 70% informational text. (Heaven forbid that a history class should read The Grapes of Wrath to learn about the Depression!). In short, there is no reason, NO REASON, for any English teacher to stop teaching literature.
Except funding.
We hear a lot about how teaching "literature" is a means of enhancing understanding of language, history, psychology, and criminology.
My balls! English teachers can easily be replaced by robots.
Thank Christ. It's about time.