Sibling gets high school english reading list in the mail

Blame hip gen x baby boomers who want to market to a young generation.

The truth is most normies don't actually care about john green, it's just because he's immediately accessible. They wouldn't differentiate john green from Dostoevsky had Dostoevsky been on the required reading list.

People like potterheads are borderline autistic outcasts. Normies don't care

the internet is a failed experiment. The bad vastly outweighs the good. its corrupting our children.

There are a lot of good books that are Veeky Forums that could be read and discussed easily in high school.
I remember reading things like The Odyssey and Julius Caesar, or of Mice and Men. Things that most of the class enjoyed reading.
The main problem is that teachers don't know how to actually talk about literature. Most public school literature study goes like this.
>read chapter
>get a worksheet a mongoloid could complete
>most work is just to prove you actually read it
>finish novel
>watch movie adaptation
>compare the book and movie adaptation
It's a miracle that people can go through public education in USA and enjoy reading at all.

It's not a mistake because of "muh degeneracy". It's a mistake because post 2005 internet encourages multitasking and not focusing on an idea for too long, it's basically an indoctrination tool for fat American cattle.

The Internet isn't at fault when idiotic parents give smartphones to their kids nor educate them about how to use it. That's like blaming automobiles because some retard let his 10 year old son drive a car.

its still a mistake

you can't shelter your children from the all pervasive behemoth that is the internet.

Obviously not just like you can't shelter them from sex. Education is key. Teaching them how to use it, how it works, the pitfalls and so on.

It's not American education, it's the whole concept of universal education and democracy.

All ideas, art, and discourse get dumbed down to the level of the mong.

We read Maus my senior year.

Are you american?

What grade is your sibling in? Also who gives a Fuck what they tell the kids to read they won't read it anyways.

When I was in school for many years I was the only one who read the set works for the year which lead to me having to help my classmates out when it came time for tests. Even when the books were thin as fuck I'm talking large print 200 pages my classmates would sometimes resort to watching a movie adaption for a general gist rather than picking up the book and reading it over a weekend. Society doesn't take an interest in anything that takes any amount of "unnecessary" effort and doesn't give instant gratification.

>TL;DR
Rather that one kid maybe picks up a book and reads it becuase it was "popular" and becomes interested in literature and perhaps spreads out their taste rather than nobody reads it becuase who gives a Fuck.

If the work sucks, why would they bother to waste 2-4h of their life on it? Sometimes it's not society being lazy but teachers picking books that don't appeal to the kids.

I am a avid reader myself but never bothered with school assignments sans Anne Franks diary because they were all still shit after 2 pages.

>tfw 90% of my English class projects were shit like making dioramas or doing a stupid presentation that had 0 to do with literature
>tfw I always got low marks because I suck at that shit
>tfw when I tried to get the teacher to accept written essays instead she said, "no user, you have to do what the class is doing!"

That's fucking Bullshit. No one would ever do that during summer before school.

You made that scenario up. This never happened.

Even the most popular of books are still not read by the majority of people. Literature although known by all is an obscure art. If it's not self help, religious or children's stories then already the majority of "readers" have lost interest. Society doesn't like reading anymore since there are easier ways to entertain oneself. What books would you recommend to attract the attention of AVERAGE high schooler who mispells anything longer than 2 syllables without the aid of autocorrect.

Give the sibling "Battle Royale" and when teach asks why he/she didn't read Hunger Games just go "Oh, I just read the original instead, I hope that ok?"

>If it's not self help, religious or children's stories then already the majority of "readers" have lost interest.
Or crime shit, or romance shit, or fantasy shit, or whatever Stevie King is doing. Reading isn't as big as movies or dumb shit like vidya but far from a niche, specially as people get older.

>Society doesn't like reading anymore
Only that we read now much more than ever in history, simply due the much higher literacy.

>who mispells anything longer than 2 syllables without the aid of autocorrect
People always sucked at spelling either way.

Now as for the question, the books in OP aren't a bad call. Obviously they are mediocre at best but you're not going to make them interesting in reading by letting them decipher Nietzsche.

The most elegant solution would be to let them pick the shit (even if most don't read, one or two fags usually do), will be a decent lesson in democracy at the same time (if you don't know what you want, someone else will decide for you). Afterwards you can analyze it and pick a more mature books based on the themes and literally devices they found interesting. The tricky part with reading is the start.

As for a more personal recommendation: If on a winter's night a traveler. If my younger sister who reads one book in a year at best loved it, HS kids will too, probably.

>German education
>loved reading
>enjoyed writing stories
>literally walked to school reading the first 5 years
>spend breaks reading non-stop
>super annoyed by other kids barely able to stutter out words when they're reading.
>super bored in class all day, just drawing and making snarky comments aka "interruptions"
>non stop detention and "leave the classroom"
>one teacher likes the stories I write
>every time I act up I have to write a story as punishment
>I get punished a lot because I was a little cunt
>started to hate writing
>stopped reading / writing completely after school
>started reading again with 26 when I got a kindle and could just pirate books.

Fuck dude, that's disgusting

I have the feeling that if I google this shit in a non-greentexty way, I would eventually find the original reddit post.

I was only implying it's not very popular compared to other mediums but I've alway felt that more people are reading books nowadays more likely due to population spike rather than literacy spikes like 50 years ago 50% of a countries population read as a pastime which would be something like 100,000 people but 50 years later 10% of the countries population read as a pastime but that is now 250'000 people(random numbers and statistics) Obviously literacy is the major factor but I'm talking about the major countries with more impact on western culture that haven't had much difference in their literacy levels in the past 50 years. Even then if a person from a foreign land learns to read it doesn't automatically imply he would take an interest in literature. I feel that books popularity is more accurately represented by percentage than hard figures for I mean by books revelence in totality these days.

I don't know so much about people reading as they get older, I have seen family friends and people I know start reading more when they retire but they had been readers before they got old and only had more time now to do so. I can't picture a person with no interest in books suddenly becoming interested in books as they get older. But I can't disprove or prove that as it's up to the individual.

As for your suggestion about people picking their own books I actually had a teacher who made us do that for book reports where we could choose our own books( she said no Lord of the rings, twilight or any of her personal no-no books) it worked out great as some actually read books ranging from autobiographies of people they Idolised to really old Sci-fi and others had to branch out into their parents and grand parents personal libraries. This one guy had a really old copy of a noir detective paper back, the pages were brown and frail and there was coffee stains on a few, he wanted to impress the teacher( and he did).A few ended up skimming summaries on the Internet but for the most part it worked out great. It's sad that was our only year with that teacher and it never happened again.

Well, the percentage of people who read is still high. Over 70% in America but just 12 books a year and it's tricky to tell which (but of course bestseller lists could give us a rough idea and generally it's trashy stuff) and it's probably more often then they go to the cinema. At least from personal experiences in my environment. Though most people I know gobble up series like crazy and of course there are other ways to watch movies.

Literature is definitely not the biggest deal but it's not that small either, given that even reading a really trashy romantic novel is way more work than watching a show, it seems like a healthy size for not the most accessible medium. Non reader parents and teachers who cultivate the image of it being a chore certainly don't help the popularity. As gratifying and easy other media is, it feels that many kids just never had the chance to fall in love with books. Perhaps I was just unlucky but in 5 different schools, I had a single teacher who didn't make me hate reading in school. (I still read like 10 books a month at home but refused to do silly assignments for the required reading books) Hell, teacher even managed to make me dislike basic historic moments like the French or Russian revolution, and I was always the annoyingly curious little shit. It takes some skill to make that stuff seem boring.

>twilight
Seems like a lost opportunity to examine how not to write and how dysfunctional relationships look. Deconstructing shitty literature would help kids to recognize trash better, specially in combination with a better work, or at least Wuthering Heights.

Teach kids to become critical about bad literature. I think that could have a more positive effect on kids at school.
Rather than forcing them to read what the school system deems good literature they force them to hate on bad literature could be funny and hate has always been more passionate fuel to the masses than love. But obviously still using literature with similar themes like you mentioned to show how something is done when done properly sounds like a good idea.do any countries school systems make them do shit like this? It seems more university type shit to me.

>The main problem is that teachers don't know how to actually talk about literature. Most public school literature study goes like this.
>read chapter
>get a worksheet a mongoloid could complete
>most work is just to prove you actually read it
>finish novel
>watch movie adaptation
>compare the book and movie adaptation

Accurate. Literally what we fucking did with Lord of The Flies back then.

>The Hunger Games
This is the only one that's a problem. That whole premise was unoriginal garbage and calling it "hunger games" along with naming the country after bread and circuses was obnoxious as fuck, I have no idea how that caught on as a successful movie franchise.

Given how most people don't know Battle Royale, the premise isn't that unoriginal. Besides, it's more current due the tie up with reality shows. The latter books also deal with media manipulation and creation of narratives in a decent way, don't portray the rebels as the good guys and even touch on shell shock. The naming is John Green type of shit, simple but effective. It's not a good book by any means and surprisingly boring despite the subject matter but it's not nearly as bad as one would think and not as cringe-inducing as John Green cancer either.

>I have no idea how that caught on as a successful movie franchise.
Are you kidding? The game show aspect but done more flashy was bound to attract people. The only thing I am surprised about is how popular Jennifer Lawrence is or that people call her hot.

It's even worse because one of the later books even name-drops 'panem et circea' to describe the Capitol's methods of giving citizens tititainment.

Wonder where she learned Latin.

As long as the lists are written without an ounce of desire to spark the curiosity for reading in kids they might as well have any random book on there. Wouldn't make a difference. They just see it as assignments in their way.

>the single greatest communicative, educational, business-facilitating, and general discourse medium ever conceived by humanity is a failed experiment
Some of the posts on Veeky Forums read like unintentional comedy.

>The only thing I am surprised about is how popular Jennifer Lawrence is or that people call her hot
Dude, J-Law is a goddess

middle school teacher here.

i dunno what state you're in, but I teach hunger games to my 6th graders lmao. Your sibling's school must have a bunch of dumbasses and bad lazy teachers.

but the actual problem is really most teachers have a list of standards that they're given and they have to pick and choose from a list based on what the school can get and what's considered grade level appropriate - most people here probably don't know anything about school environments, but teachers are the ones getting fucked in the ass - we're basically there to deliver what admin and state and fed people want. If I could, I would teach Joan Didion or Dashiell Hammett to my middle schoolers but no. There's a list of stuff that is either a) the school has it or b) has been officially approved for x grade level

>The main problem is that teachers don't know how to actually talk about literature.
No, the main problem is that teachers have standards to cover that turn literary studies into fundamental building blocks far removed from the kinds of discussions you would see on this board or a college campus.

The fact is that most kids in high school today are low to mid range ability and have no motivation to read outside of class. I have assigned readings - easy readings - easier than any of the books listed in the OP - and had only one or two students read at home.

So, as a teacher, you're stuck with the task of finding texts that students will:
>Want to read
>Have the ability to understand
>Be able to apply material from standards to

I suppose you could just do all the readings out loud, but that is tedious as hell and would just piss everyone off in the end.

I've taught HS English for nine years.

>have no motivation to read outside of class
Which is partly the job of the teacher to create since their parents failed at that. Though I guess the standards you have to cover doesn't help. Who decides on these?

> I have assigned readings - easy readings - easier than any of the books listed in the OP - and had only one or two students read at home.
Well, it's not just about being easy but also being interesting or at least sold as interesting.

Though I am Yuroppoor as as bad the schools here are outside of Scandinavia, I bet it's the paradise compared to the states.

>Which is partly the job of the teacher to create since their parents failed at that.
Much easier said than done. This is why so many reading lists are comprised of 'young adult' books and not 'real' literature.

>Though I guess the standards you have to cover doesn't help. Who decides on these?
The state (or federal) government.

>Well, it's not just about being easy but also being interesting or at least sold as interesting.
It is insanely difficult to find readings that are mutually interesting to thirty teenagers who live in impoverished homes and want to text and play Call of Duty instead of the work you assign in class.

not him but generally the state
for instance, here's my state's standards for high school 10th grade English
cde.state.co.us/sites/default/files/documents/coreadingwriting/documents/rwc_10th_grade.pdf

not only that but a lot of people are adapting overall common core school-wide, and then on top of that there's classes dedicated to management programs schools have adopted. The one I teach at uses Capturing Kids Hearts and we have a whole 40 minute class period dedicated to teaching social-emotional stuff from that to students

I should also mention that, as the teacher, I do not usually have the full capacity to choose what the kids read. I have to rely on what's in the ancient textbooks we have and the novel sets that are in storage - and of those, only a few can be used because there are three other levels that have their pick as well.

Heh, I have a hard time picking something for my sister and she's 21, finding a book that would appeal to thirty teenagers is no doubt a challenge.

>The state (or federal) government.
But as in, do the people who make the calls have any connection to the educators or at least worked there in the past? It just seems so disconnected from reality.

>want to text and play Call of Duty
Kite Runner might work, maybe. Though with the limitations, your hands are almost tied. Damn, I am glad being done with school. Sounds like a depressing situation for all sides involved.

Doesn't open for me.

Does the social-emotional stuff even have any effect?

>Does the social-emotional stuff even have any effect?
not really no
for the schools who pay for management programs and stuff like CKH, it's more about image than fidelity. Nobody actually believes in that shit but we have to adhere to something admin paid for

essentially teaching is a cuck job. you have to watch while they fuck what you love in the ass

12 books a year? 70%, that seems wayyy too high, or else the definition of 'reading' and 'book' is quite fluid. how many people do you know that read literature recreationally?
>assuming you're not involved in some literary circle btw

also try this
cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/GradeLevelBooks

scroll down to reading, writing and communicating

pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/10/19/slightly-fewer-americans-are-reading-print-books-new-survey-finds/
The numbers are from here I think, so it's 12 for mean. 3-5 sounds a lot more realistic indeed.

Now that's a sad waste of money and time.

Link still doesn't open. Probably discriminates against foreign IPs. I am not even brown, I promise.

>decent messages
No, they're piss.

>twelfth grade

It's spelled "esse", nigga.

Fuck drumpf

AND fuck white people

Which is terribly sad.

I remember from my time in Dutch high school we had to read 18 books during 3 years for an oral exam. Half of the class didn't read anything, it is a bloody shame that they passed. We were allowed to pick the books ourselves, they just had to be Dutch literature from different time periods.

Nowadays schools even want to stop the required reading list. 18 books in 3 years for kids that are bound to go to college isn't that big of a requirement. Now you get people complaining that they have to read a lot to get through university.

Yes

Gulag Archipelago, abridged of course. Don't want to traumatize them with the T H I C C meme.

That's sad, very, very sad... but it's probably also because its easy and they think it fits their age and level of comprehension

this is not really that hard to understand
its not about the material itself its just about getting kids to enjoy reading right off the bat and then their tastes will naturally mature over time
its even more effective because they will learn to associate these kind of books with adolescence and they will become nothing but nostalgic guilty pleasures to scoff at
its really just a standard progression model
you can't have kids go from "The Hungry Caterpillar" to "War and Peace" and expect them to be responsive to that

ap/advanced/honor classes or whatever you want to call them often do this, at least here in texas