James Martin
Mr. Connell
Period 3
11/08/21
“I Know Why The Caged Bird Cannot Read”
Thesis: Modern english classes are anti-imagination, as overly simplistic, black and white texts
are required to be read in the classroom, displacing thoughtful masterpieces that have enough
complexity to give students a better understanding of themselves, literature, and the world.
Claim
Evidence
Commentary
“Yet every opportunity to
“My own two sons, now
This evidence shows a
instill adolescents with a
twenty-one and seventeen,
firsthand account of the
lifelong affinity for
have read (in public and
varying quality that is
narrative”...”is being
private schools)
present in modern English
squandered on regimens of
Shakespeare, Hawthorne,
classes’ book lists. By
trash and semi-trash.”
and Melville. But they’ve
showing examples of what
also slogged repeatedly
the author considers to be
through the manipulative
“trash,” a baseline is
melodramas of Alice
established and specificity
Walker and Maya
is made to show what they
Angelou”
think needs to stay and
Anecdote
what needs to leave english
classrooms,
“One can see why this
“Many chapters end with
The pompous and childish
memoir might appeal to the sententious epigrams
nature of many chapters'
lazy or uninspired teacher,
virtually begging to serve
conclusions noticed by the
who can conduct the class
as texts for sophomoric
author are shown as a
as if the students were the
rumination”
potential reason for why
studio audience for
Judgement
lazy educators might opt
Angelou’s guest
for the text over other far
appearance on Oprah.”
denser ones. The fact that
Maya Angelou’s novel is
present on so many reading
lists shows that what the
author feels is juvenile has
already made its way into
many classrooms,
weakening them greatly.
“To hold up this book (I
“Many of the terrible
The author sees blatant
Know Why The Caged Bird
mysteries that confront
writing mistakes present in
SIgns) as a paradigm of
teachers of college freshman
Angelou’s writing, and yet
memoir, of thought — of
composition can be solved
these writings and others like
literature — is akin to
simply by looking at
it are still held in the same
inviting doctors convicted of
Angelou’s writing. Who told
regard as masterpieces. This
malpractice to instruct our
students to combine a dozen
over elevation of mediocre
medical students.”
mixed metaphors in one
writing by many modern
paragraph?”
English classrooms is a great
Judgement
weakness.
“The question is no longer
“A motion passed by the San
A focus on diversity rather
what the writer has written
Francisco Board of Education
than quality and merit has
but rather who the writer is — in March 1998 mandates that
become standard for the
specifically, what ethnic
“works of literature read in
English curriculum. This drop
group or gender identity an
class in grades nine to eleven
in quality felt by the author as
author represents.”
by each high school student
the writing itself has become
must include works by writers second to who wrote it and
of color which reflect the
what they looked like has led
diversity of culture, race, and
to lesser writings being
class.”
selected on the basis of
Fact
appearance or gender.
“It’s cheering that so many
“A friend’s daughter’s
With Huckleberry Finn
lists include The Adventures
English teacher informed a
already being criticized rather
of Huckleberry Finn —
group of parents that the only
than analyzed, a desire to
but not when we discover that reason to study Huckleberry
establish moral high ground
this moving, funny novel is
over long dead masters of
Finn was to decide whether it
being taught not as a
was a racist text.” Anecdote
writing has only grown. This
work of art but as a piece of
undermines the whole
damning evidence against
purpose of the class, studying
that bigot, Mark Twain.”
the author’s morality rather
than the content of their
writing.
“But to treat the geniuses of
“Teachers are counseled ‘to
Author’s like Emerson are
the past as naughty children,
help students rise above
judged and minimized, being
amenable to reeducation by
Emerson’s style of stating an
used as examples of what not
the children of the present,
idea bluntly, announcing
to do rather than of
evokes the educational theory
reservations, and sometimes
unconventional writing styles.
of the Chinese Revolution.”
even negating the original
Mocking these literary
idea’” Fact
geniuses to the point that
they’re held below the
students of the classroom
only weakens their
understanding of writing as a
whole.
“But rather than exposing
“Shakespeare’s genius, his
Shakespeare’s genius has
students to works of literature
poetry, his profound,
inspired many thanks to it’s
that expand their capacities
encyclopedic understanding
sheer complexity and layered
and vocabularies”...”we either of personality, managed to
nature, aspects often void in
offer them “easy” (Steinbeck,
persuade me that I could be
the easier and more digestible
Knowles, Angelou, Lee)
that mythical king” Anecdote
texts favored by modern
books that “anyone” can
English classes. Giving
understand, or we serve up
students simple and easy
the tougher works
material deprives them of
predigested.”
their opportunity for such
inspiration.
“If educators continue to
“And there are the carefully
Even if students do favor
assume that teenagers are
chosen details, the complex
books about teens their own
interested exclusively in
sentences, and the
age, educators aren’t forced
books about teenagers, there
down-to-earth diction in
into lesser quslity. Many
is engaging, truthful fiction
Stuart Dybek’s great Chicago
books such as those by Dybek
about childhood and
story, ‘Hot Ice.’” Judgement
have the right demographic
adolescence, written in ways
and complexity to make them
that remind us why someone
worth reading.
might like to read.”
“In simplifying what a book
“To experience the
Educators' misunderstanding
is allowed to tell us —
heartbreaking
of what actually matters in
Twain’s novel is wholly about matter-of-factness with which
writing has led the focus to be
racism and not at all about
Anne Frank described her
on the most narrow of
what it’s like to be Huck Finn
situation seems more useful
windows, with so much more
— teachers pretend to spark
than packing a paper bag with depth if only they knew
discussion but actually
Game Boys, cigarettes, and
where to look. This means
prevent it.”
CDs” Analogy
that even if what is being read
in classrooms can be of great
quality, it is now common for
them to be entirely
misinterpreted or simplified.
“What results from these
“he or she can work in groups
Wringing out any nuance in
educational methods is a
and operate by consensus,
text to leave only objective
mode of thinking (or, more
and has a resultant, residual
right and wrong has taught
accurately, of not thinking)
distrust for the eccentric, the
students to trust the greater
that equips our kids for the
idiosyncratic, the annoyingly
group and oppose anyone
future: Future McDonald’s
. . . individual.” Hypothetical
who threatens such a simple
employees.”
situation
framework. This hatred of
individuality present in
modern English classes
prepares students not for
success, but for mediocrity.