I was reading my latest Reader's Digest the other day, particularly the article that published funny anecdotes that teachers had sent in. One struck my eye as being a sign of the times: a middle school music teacher couldn't get her students to be enthused about the Mozart piece they were singing. A frustrated student finally raised her hand and said, "We want to sing things from our generation, not yours!"
I was both amused and bothered by that. The humor was obvious, but the implications not quite so clear. My generation's music was good stuff. We had folk music, protest songs, Elvis and rock and roll, the Beatles, the Doors, and a whole menage of music that is now classic, yet never once were we exposed to those things in music classes or church choirs. Instead, we were required to recognize symphony classics, opera classics, and the like. In singing, we sang things that weren't currently popular but represented real music from the past. We focused on direction, pitch, precision, and blend. It was all about diction and discipline and becoming performers in the strictest sense of the word. I was blessed with vocal music teachers who never let us/me fall into what the high school choir director called "crooning". On my own time, I could listen to whatever I liked--and did--but my formal education was formal. To be honest, I would not have liked to sing songs of my generation in school because we could never have come close to the impact of the real songs as performed by the commercial artists. But what a rich heritage of musical knowledge I received at the direction of those who held the standard high!!
On the same note, when I was very young, children's literature was inspired by adults who wrote about how good little boys and girls should be, but the stories had to be read to kids. There was a moral to every story which was, perhaps, not a lot of fun to hear. By the time my little brother came along in the early 50s, Dr. Seuss arrived with his "I Can Read" books that were whimsical and fun. Children learned to read on these books, but they were sometimes irreverent. Unheard of! Kiddie lit changed. It gave way to new ways of connecting to children in print.
When I became a teacher, I was challenged by research in learning. Things were changing from forcing children to read classics (as was my experience in school) to having them read contemporary works--and then, in time, to letting them read whatever they wanted just as long as they were reading. The supposition was that avid readers would eventually be drawn to what society considers classic. The problem with that is that it isn't true! I never really directed my daughter's reading, although I think she had every Little Golden Book that was ever made over time. She eventually graduated to The Babysitter's Club series, and later some teenage series that she loved, but she had a book going in almost every room of the house: one in her bedroom, one in the bathroom, and yet another in the kitchen. She DID gravitate to some classics as urged, but I always left it up to her. I consider her one of the successes...but not because I was exposing her to what I thought was better reading. I was remiss. I don't think I kept a very high standard for her!
My granddaughter, by contrast, wasn't led. We always sent money to school with her on the Scholastic's Book Sale day, in order to support the library, but she came home with books about fairies, etc. There was a whole series of these fairy books published by Scholastic Books, many of which came home with Robin. Megan and I read scores of chapters of these books to Robin at bedtime before Robbie could even read, but we all agreed--even Robin over time--that these were awful books. No exciting plot. No distinct characters. No challenge to the developing mind about the lessons of life.
Robin is an avid reader now. She has devoured all of the Harry Potter books, The Hunger Games trilogy, and most of John Green's books, like The Fault in Our Stars, etc. I'm proud of her for that. But she has never read Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn or any of the other books that define life as we know it in America. How will she understand the references from those books? How will she know the origins of expressions she will run into every day of her life without having read them? Is it enough that we let our boys only read books about sports stars or let our girls only read romance novels because that is what they like? What does that teach them about life? Where is the quality control in that??
We have become a casual nation. No need to be perfect in grammar. People will understand what we write. No need to dress up for church or funerals or weddings. People will understand that we are what we are. Or will they? In our effort to be accepted for what we are, we forget that what we are is sometimes reflected by what we say and/or what we wear. Once upon a time, I could tell my students to attend an outside function wearing their "Sunday Best". That expression soon lost meaning when I came to realize that church attendance attire had relaxed in families just in order to get the kids to go. Worship in good clothes or worship in jeans or shorts...but just worship. There is merit in that. I'm not sure that God cares what His faithful are wearing when they approach the altar, but there is a part of me that says that going into the House of God for worship should require something that indicates that we have respect for our surroundings and the others who are there with us. What comes out of our mouths (or our keyboards) should also show enough respect for ourselves and others to make what we say worth hearing or reading.
I realize that I'm a dinosaur. I still don't think passing gas in public is funny. I hate belching loudly at the table. I still feel that there are reasons for dressing appropriate to the circumstances and putting our best feet forward in written word. I still feel that children need to be directed to read certain things and behave in certain ways. I'm old school. Many people would discount my feelings as being Politically Correct, and therefore not worthy of attention. They may be right by current standards. I just refuse to lower mine. Quality control is still a part of my existence. In the meantime, all I can do is express my opinion. I try. God knows, I try...
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