Handout and Chapter Three

This week we are supposed to blog about two things: a handout on high school English literature, and Chapter 3 of our textbook.

I'll start with the handout. There were two aspects to the handout: letters to the editor concerning John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and whether it was appropriate for high school readers, and also an opinion piece from a high school English teacher lamenting how we don't teach our teens good novels. I was intrigued by the discussion of Grapes of Wrath, because I've always meant to read it and just never got around to doing so. I know that it's about the Great Depression and migrant farmers coming to California, that it was made into a famous movie, and that it's considered one of the classics of American literature, but for whatever reason I've just never read it. I think I might do so now... if only because one of the writers said it was sordid and innapropriate for young readers. I've found that many books that are considered inapropriate are actually great reads.

The column from the high school English teacher was interesting, but I couldn't quite get a handle on exactly what her argument or main point was. Was it that we need to teach more interesting books to high schoolers? Was it that teenagers simply have too many distractions these days, with YouTube and video games, to be interested in "pictureless chains of black print", as she called it? I couldn't quite figure out where she was coming from. She made too many points but didn't have a clear MAIN point.

The other topic we were to blog about this week was chapter 3 of our textbook. This was a long (30 some odd pages) chapter that was densely packed with information, dealing primarily with arguments and how it related to critical thinking.

One concept that I had trouble with in this chapter was syllogism. The text states that a syllogism is "The joining of two premises - two statements taken to be true - to produce a conclusion, a third statement." It further defines syllogism as being Greek for "a reckoning together". I understood the basic definition, but had trouble applying it practically. The easiest way for me to understand syllogism is to think of it as a synonym for "conclusion", but that seems a little simplistic.

An interesting thing in this chapter was the essay by George F. Will. Now, because I am a devoted Democrat and Liberal, I generally avoid anything written by Mr. Will, a staunch Conservative, because I know it will only serve to irritate me. I can appreciate Mr. Will's style and skill as a writer, but everything he says, pretty much I disagree with. This essay was no different. I admired his wit and his skill at crafting an argument, but everything he said made me roll my eyes and get annoyed. But I think it's good for me to read things I disagree with occasionally; it makes me better for having seen both sides of an argument.