{"id":57554,"date":"2022-02-16T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T12:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=57554"},"modified":"2022-02-09T18:10:21","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T23:10:21","slug":"feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/","title":{"rendered":"Feb. 16 Flashback: ‘The other, of course, involves orcs’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jeremy Piven-in-Grosse Pointe Blank<\/em> voice: \u201cTwenty years, man. Twenty years<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

From February 16, 2011, \u201cHonors English<\/a>\u201c:<\/p>\n

I like the idea of my daughter taking honors English. I do not like the idea of my daughter taking honors English from someone who regards\u00a0The Fountainhead<\/em>\u00a0as worthwhile. I do not like the idea of her studying literature with a teacher who\u00a0doesn\u2019t like literature\u00a0<\/em>and who seems intent on infecting students with her distaste for it.<\/p>\n

Set aside the appalling themes and juvenile narcissism of the book\u2019s pseudo-philosophy. It\u2019s dull. Numbingly, claw-your-eyes-out dull. It\u2019s horribly written, yet it\u2019s horribleness never manages to be horrible in an entertaining way. This is the sort of book that can ruin reading \u2014 the very\u00a0idea<\/em>\u00a0of reading \u2014 for months or years afterward.<\/p>\n

And beyond that, an honors English course is supposed to prepare students for college. Slogging through\u00a0The Fountainhead<\/em>\u00a0does nothing to prepare a student for college. No one needs to read this book in preparation for college. No one needs to read this book\u00a0in<\/em>\u00a0college.<\/p>\n

\u2026 We can\u2019t read everything. Most of us won\u2019t get around to reading\u00a0most<\/em>\u00a0things and we\u2019ll wind up leaving inspiring, insightful, beautiful, life-enhancing books on the shelf. Time spent reading repetitive dreck like\u00a0The Fountainhead<\/em>\u00a0is time spent\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0reading those other books \u2014 books that actually deserve to be read, the reading of which will enrich us and maybe even improve us.<\/p>\n

Reading\u00a0The Fountainhead<\/em>\u00a0does not enrich or improve. It stupefies. Time spent reading this book would be better spent watching television. Time spent reading this book would be better spent watching a\u00a0Jersey Shore<\/em>\u00a0marathon on television. That execrable MTV program would do just as much to prepare a high school student for college. And Snooki is a better role model \u2014 a better\u00a0person<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 than Rand or her protagonists.<\/p>\n

If the honors English teacher actually did require students to watch a\u00a0Jersey Shore<\/em>\u00a0marathon, I would suspect that this wasn\u2019t a very good class. But I would be less suspicious of that teacher than I am of this one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the whole post here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On learning that my daughter’s public high school honors English class was teaching Ayn Rand instead of literature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nFeb. 16 Flashback: 'The other, of course, involves orcs'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On learning that my daughter's public high school honors English class was teaching Ayn Rand instead of literature.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feb. 16 Flashback: 'The other, of course, involves orcs'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On learning that my daughter's public high school honors English class was teaching Ayn Rand instead of literature.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-16T12:00:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-09T23:10:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/\",\"name\":\"Feb. 16 Flashback: 'The other, of course, involves orcs'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-16T12:00:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-09T23:10:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"On learning that my daughter's public high school honors English class was teaching Ayn Rand instead of literature.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2022\/02\/16\/feb-16-flashback-the-other-of-course-involves-orcs\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Feb. 16 Flashback: ‘The other, of course, involves orcs’\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/\",\"name\":\"slacktivist\",\"description\":\""Test everything; 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. 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