I have a great story to tell you. I think it will explain a lot of things. A couple decades ago in a stuffy classroom, a bunch of educators gathered round and bemoaned the plight of “today’s generation”. “What are we going to do? Instead of enriching their minds with the classics, these children just park themselves in front of the television set and become dimwits”. Luckily, someone suggested that they should come up with new policies to ensure that students would fill their minds with good knowledge and become cultured citizens. Murmurs of agreement circled around the room.
Well these educators were on a mission. A mission to save the generation of youth from intellectual decay. So these erudite scholars pulled out their pieces of chalk, their pens and pencils, and brainstormed. After half an hour, they got back together and shared their profound ideas. One teacher-librarian suggested providing more funding to school libraries. “Too expensive” said one school trustee who just recently acquired a Mercedes-Benz. An English teacher suggested starting reading clubs in schools and providing a new book to each child every month. “A waste of resources” sneered a school board director who just booked a trip to Bora Bora for next week. Finally, the Minister of Education shared his idea. “The Guilt List“, he proudly proclaimed. A list of 194 works of literature that students would need to read before they graduate. The punishment for failing to read the entire list being that a student “has no right to joy!” “In addition,” the Minister bellowed, “a required reading list of ten books per semester — no double counting! — with at least one book by a Canadian author”. The poor English teachers’ cries of “not enough time!” were drowned out by the laughter and high-fiving of the more senior (wealthier) educators and policy makers.
So it was decided. The English teachers did their best to teach ten books in four months. Obviously, Atwood’s “Cat’s Eye” was selected for Canadian content in every classroom and quickly skimmed through. The students hardly had any time to learn anything else, what with their reading list. Their backs hunched over and their eyes turned glazy. There was no joy. Only evil. And the thought of defeating the evil by burning all their books at the end of the semester.
I told this story to my mother and then to my friend. The story stayed pretty much the same when I told it both times. However, I found myself being a lot snarkier when telling the story to my mother because she would understand a reference I made about a real-life school board director. It took her a while to equate my story with evil. She remarked that evil sprung out from a good and noble intention to contribute to society. However, the suggestion was unreasonable and misguided and thus ironically led to evil coming into existence.
However, I read Dr. Paterson’s blog before telling the story to my friend. She reminded us to “be careful about the stories [we] tell … because once a story is told it can never be taken back.” As I mentioned, I made a direct reference to the school board director and something he had allegedly done and thus had to resign. When I thought about it, I realized that though I was trying to be clever, this story about evil coming into existence should not drag a person through the mud. Unfortunately, the story has already been told. Therefore, I decided to change what the school board director did in my story and focus more on the evil that was created when I told the story to my friend. Neither my friend or I read “Cat’s Eye” although some classmates in high school did have to. So I emphasized this reference rather than the original one about the school director. He thought it was a pretty funny story and could picture the “evil money makers” laughing at their cleverness while the teachers suffered.
Personally, I enjoyed telling the story and changing what I emphasized to my audience. The medium of telling my story also changed. I called my mother in Toronto since my parents do not use Skype. Thus, my storytelling depended more on the inflections in my voice. On the other hand, I video called my friend on Skype and so he could see my body language which included a lot of eye-rolling. It was great to make up my own story and relate it to our course.
Have you ever felt a sort of evil lurking when facing a required reading list?
Works Cited
“Impact of Media Use on Children and Youth.” Paediatrics & Child Health 8.5 (2003): 301–306. Web. 24. Jan. 2015.
“The Guilt List.” English and Comparative Literature Department. San José State University. 12 Jul. 2013. Web. 20 Jan. 2015.
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