On Tue, 3 Dec 1996, Ben Bjostad wrote:
> Personally, I would enjoy seeing more SF taught in schools. In three years of
> high school english, I have seen one Arthur C. Clarke story in Freshman
> English (If I Forget Thee, O Earth) and one Ray Bradbury short story, There
> Will Come Soft Rains. Plus, the new Freshman English textbooks (which are
> useless to me as I'm now a junior) include the Anne McCaffrey novellae
> 'Dragonsong'. Three SF stories taught during Freshman year, then no more.
> That's pretty pathetic, if you ask me. There isn't any SF taught in Sophomore
> English, Survey of American Lit or Senior English. I intend to take the
> matter up with Mr. Wolbrink, the chairman of the English Department, one of
> these days.
During my secondary school years, I can remember only two bona-fide SF
stories being taught in English, "The Cold Equations" and one of Ray
Bradbury's Martian tales (one not included in THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES).
However, we DID have to read THE HOBBIT in ninth grade as well as a whole
unit devoted to Edgar Allan Poe's stories and poems. And in 11th grade,
we were tested on DANDELION WINE. So we weren't totally devoid of SF.
Mr. Gar
(waxing nostalgia over high school daze!)
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