Comment by victorbjorklund
16 hours ago
Isn’t that the purpose of school? To make kids try and expand their thinking to think about things they don’t think about in normal life. A normal average teen does not think about chemistry, math, physics either. Will everything stick? Probably not. But some might stick for some students and that’s better than just giving up and only teaching teens about things average teens are naturally interest in (sex education?)
The comment you're responding to is talking about books that students will "barely understand". You're talking about subjects teens aren't interested in. The comment above says nothing about interest and specifically does not advocate against teaching things to teens just because they aren't interested in them; only if they won't understand them.
Even if you don't fully understand it the first time around, these are cultural reference points, so at least when you hear someone reference them, you'll have an idea what they are talking about and can get the point of what the adults are talking about. Then later if you ever read it again, you also have a better understanding of its place and get a better second pass understanding.
There is also the role of simply communicating to the next generation that society values these books, and they are important for some reason. Even if you only get one shallow layer of meaning at the time. Same with history and everything else. It's a time to get a first taste of what these things feel like.
>The comment you're responding to is talking about books that students will "barely understand".
That's how you get to understand something you "barely understand". You dive into it, and gradually you understand it better.
I understood classic novels in high school just fine. Further experience reveals more layers, but you still get lots of life lessons, and poetic moments, and better grasp of people and life, and introduction into a culture that's not just consuming slop, from reading them as a teenager.
There's a difference between teaching kids stuff they aren't interested in in order to expose them to it (good!), and teaching kids stuff that require the lived experience of an adult to truly understand and appreciate (of dubious utility!).
Even more so, I feel it's outright counter productive since it's not uncommon for kids to start hating book reading because of the impression these mandatory reads leave.
The two main purposes of school are to provide day care for workers' children and inculcating obedience to authority.