What Was the Platypus Reading Back Then?

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I am currently preparing two primary source reading units for my 9th and 10th grade World History class. Next week, they'll begin reading Homer's "Iliad." After that, they will read the "Odyssey" for English class and then finish off the year with me by reading Virgil's "Aeneid." We'll be discussing each day's reading using the first fifteen to twenty minutes of class, and I'll be interested to see how much they'll get out of it. My hopes are not too high. What I'm really aiming at is the bare minimum of exposure and getting one or two of my brightest pupils actually interested in the classics.

Worrying over whether or not I'm right to push them so far brought back to mind just what I was reading for class when I was their age. Just to clarify, I went to a New England private academy for the first half of my high school education. So let's see what I can remember.

9th Grade:

The Odyssey by Homer
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
The Tempest by William Shakespeare

10th Grade:

The Idylls of the King by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Moby Dick by Herman Melville

The point here is that I would have been at least up to the challenge that I'm setting my own students. It leaves me distressed that I gravely doubt their ability.

Comments

Rachel said…
Dear Platypus,

I am in need of some books about the Cavaliers and the Roundheads for a project I'm doing. Can you recommend anything? Thanks! :)
2:18 PM
Linds said…
I worry about that all the time, too. It pains me that their level seems so much lower than I remember mine being... but that's why I push them. And each year, I get at least one kid telling me that my class made him love history when he hated it before. As for the rest of them... jury's still out. :)

I think a lot of it has to do with society's massive underestimation of children and teenagers. I'm out to stop it, in my classroom if I can. :)
11:05 PM
James said…
Hi Rachel. The English Civil War is not my area of expertise so I'm afraid I can't recommend much off the top of my head. If you're interested in the Puritans, Leland Reikland's "Worldly Saints: The Puritans as They Actually Were" would be a good place to start. You can also get Charles I's auto-biography, "Eikon Basilike" through Biola inter-library loan.

Linds. I'm glad there are still some stubborn teachers out there who demand better from their students. I think the culture of low expectations is also particularly pernicious in California. From what I've heard, Texas is better, and I know Connecticut is.
6:09 PM
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