No... since the window for teaching students about the world's literature is small (four years of high school) and limited (a few books a year) only the best examples of literature should be chosen to give children a well-rounded outlook... thus my comment about "reservations" for some of the books cited... No agenda from the teacher should apply to such Book Lists, but instead a well-rounded literature survey should be utilized. As reference, the Library of Congress and various reading organizations have posted on-line various reading lists categorized by grade, which should be consulted. Additionally, teachers should modify such lists based on the interests of students; remember the intent is to get students to read and read widely... if this can be done by matching books to student interests; i.e., sports, etc., that should be a tact employed.
I have a sneaky suspicion that is because of diversity. For example, San Antonio has a large hispanic community, and they would probably be pissed if kids didn't read a hispanic author. Anaya was probably thrown in there more as a token than anything, I wasn't impressed with the book. However, it would be difficult to change the list the way our AP program is set up. Each year is mapped out, and English teachers on all grade levels work with each other, and students are expected to recall To Kill a Mockingbird (which is read freshman year) all the way up to their senior year, and ideally, beyond.
Re: Teaching Methods Completely different to the stuation over here (which I don't think has changed too much since my schooldays in the 90s). Over the approximately similar two year, I think I only had three or four books to study. Although they were studied rather than read. And two of those were Shakespeare (Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet), the other I can actually remember was To Kill a Mockingbird. Didn't enjoy a single one of them. Had I read them myself, I suspect I might have quite approved of the last one there, although the two Shakespeare ones I'd have stopped right away (he shouldn't be read, but performed - that said I wish the NC would just get over him, and put in some more variety). We did get a reading list in earlier on in school, of which I did get in a couple of books (both forgettable - I have), but still do like reading to this day. If not so much time of late (I'm approaching the end of my teacher training now). But then I think had I encountered some of these during my schooldays, I wouldn't have been impressed.
Re: Teaching Methods Dead on. Any kid who can go home and complain about the teacher and the school and get reinforced in that is bound to lose respect for the teacher. I had a confrontation with a student early in the school year regarding a research project. It was clearly plagiarized and a Google search proved this. Upon calling home, I found that the mother had done the plagiarizing. She defended the work (her son didn't even know what was written on the paper he turned in). He was an absolute ********** in class, refusing to do any work until his mom took him out of my class. Later I developed something of a bond with the kid (now that he was no longer in my class). He fancied himself a drummer and he saw me playing the drum kit after school, doing an impression of Animal from the Muppet Show (flams all over the place, triplet rolls on the toms, in short, showing off). After that he loved me. In April, the science fair projects were set up and I looked at his "Density" presentation. There was no experimental evidence here, it was a glossy re-creation of some textbook's explanation of the concept. I asked him, "your mom have fun doing that one?" She always liked science class, he told me. A bad teacher rarely does any significant damage. A bad parent...
Re: Teaching Methods Apologize for dodging your own contradictions. You mention Montessori but fail to explain how that teaching method can exist under NCLB. You avoided this question from Dr. Wankler earlier in this thread as you had a soccer game to go watch. So you fail to educate yourself in education methods then claim to have some idea of what is or isn't wrong with our education system. Ignorance!
Re: Teaching Methods With about a hundred pages left in Grapes of Wrath, the similarities between these books are amazing. I'm really excited about starting school in a week, since we'll be able to delve deeper into the connections.