(Image by Amanda Cleary Eastep--children's author)
The Common Core that many states have recently instituted in our schools is controversial. Along with many literature proponents, I am deeply concerned at the replacement of 50% of the fiction and poetry with technical and non-fiction reading. This other reading is non-fiction from science, math, etc. Already our students do not read enough literature, and since schools have been trying to attract children to reading by offering inferior literature that presents immediate pleasure, the body of great literature to which a student is exposed, has been steadily shrinking. Now it has just shrunk more.
Note: What began as a blog entry became a behemoth. Of course, the question elicits a lifetime of answer. You may want to read this in a few sittings. I wish I could provide you with a bookmark and a large cup of coffee.
In the novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Garcia Marquez, the author describes in his magical but realistic way a village suffering from an insomnia plague. As this plague continues, it gradually causes the loss of memory. To try and salvage memory, the people developed an elaborate plan that involved labeling everything, for instance, "This is a cow." But even the labels lost meaning over time and needed to be further defined. So, for instance to "This is a cow," they added: "She gives us milk. We add milk to our coffee." Eventually the village put a placard at the entrance to town that said, "God exists," as that knowledge too was slipping. Then the people began to forget what a mother was and what a father was and lost all language to describe it.
