Tenebris Nox @ tenebrisnox @feddit.uk

> Your reality, sir, is lies and balderdash… and I'm delighted to say that

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2 yr. ago

Quite likely. There are a great number of poorly-educated terrible English teachers. Pot luck if you find a good one in a school.

Of Mice and Men is a good novel for lower-attaining teens who struggle with reading. It's very short (5 or so chapters), deals with "adult issues" and is a bit like a "novel-by-numbers" where you can introduce things like setting, theme, characters, symbolism in a pretty straightforward way. One of the problems was that when schools began chasing exam grades in earnest because of accountability, ALL kids started studying the novel including the top end who should be academically stretched by something more challenging.

It's possible to read the novel and see discriminatory language without speaking it aloud. It needs to be taught in a context where the racism (and misogyny and abuse of disabled as well) are called out. English lessons are the best place for this to happen.

There's a great poem that's been taught in English classrooms for years by John Agard called "Half-Caste" where he demolishes the racism of the term.

Teachers - English teachers - need to challenge and discuss racism.