The Redundancy of English Class
The Redundancy of English ClassIn high school how many times did you have to write an English essay or some other assignment and ponder its meaning? How many times have you asked yourself, “What good is this essay going to do me later?”, or if you thought, “Boy, I am sure glad I wrote that essay on peanuts.”.
If you were a normal student you would question the relevancy and importance of every painstaking assignment, and most of the time grudgingly do it anyway grinding your teeth the whole time,except if you were one of the mythical students who enjoyed the chance to express them self, or strengthen their hand muscles.
The solution to this dilemma is easy, limit the number of years you have to take English say to 2, like what they do with math and science, and for the few who enjoy or are interested in it can take more of it, and get more out of it because the students who do not want to be there and most often slow the class down probably would not be there. My reasoning of this conclusion comes from my peers, experience, pure logic, and the opinions of most of the adults that I asked.
For in the first 2 years of English (freshman and sophomore) you learn all about prefixes, suffixes, roots, giving speeches, the structure and how to of writing essays and the like, as well as vocabulary. All of these things are important and very necessary to be successful, that is not in dispute however.
What is in dispute is the 3 and 4 years (junior and senior) and the idiotic redundancy of them, you can say that you are honing your writing skills, but after the previous 2 years of these you have become fairly proficient and do not need more practice, unless you plan to study a subject that involves it.
You might very well say, “What about all of the literature classics?”, and my reply to them would be, “What about them?” I have read the assigned books, most of them anyway, and though I realize the importance of them in the literature world, but not out of the literature world. Sure they are great books, I cannot think of one for-instance of when reading Hamlet, for an example, and aside from if I am ever on, Who Wants to be a Millionaire, where and when it will benefit me. I am an avid reader and appreciate such books, but I do not like them, especially with all of the quizzes and, “You have to be on page …. by ….”, that spoils the book. The only books I see myself talking with other people about are about the books I read, not , “Hey, so do you think the ghost in Hamlet was really his father or the devil.”
Currently I have to do a project on it (Hamlet), and considering I loathed reading it in the first place I am now being asked to do a project on it based on a sizable amount of research. I am am forced to further waste my time and divert my real interests and aspirations on something that I need as much as a fish needs a bicycle.
The one non-repetetive thing that you learn all four years is vocabulary, which in itself is very important, but is it worth 2 years? I think not, especially when it is done between all of the other redundant and time consuming work, as well as some what boring for most people.
If you look at the statistics they will tell you that we have a literacy problem, or something of that nature, then like everything else they do, why not just institutionalize a fully just and logical test, if you pass it you can stop after the second year, and if you don’t then, or wish to take more of it, knock yourself out.
The point of this essay is to point out the realistic redundancy of senior and junior year English, not to ban or eliminate it, but regulate it. This will make English classes more productive and allow more intricate stuff to be done in the classes. I hope that after reading this essay you will think about what I have pointed out and adjust your angle on this subject how you see fit.