Tuesday, Mar. 30, 2004
My Of Mice and Men Manifesto, posted at 6:51 p.m.
Epiphany in Baltimore has moved to epiphanyinbaltimore.blogspot.com This is how I spent my time last night. It's already known around the department as my Of Mice and Men manifesto.Proposal to move Of Mice and Men from 9th grade curriculum and into 10th grade curriculum
For years, 9th grade has been host to John Steinbeck��s novella Of Mice and Men. With a curriculum that is aligned with works that deal with coming of age in an unjust society, the novella no longer fits the 9th grade curriculum.
Reasons Of Mice and Men should be moved:
�� Perfectly fits into 10th grade��s course theme concerning the American Dream.
�� Does not fit at all into course themes and questions of the 9th grade curriculum.
�� Complex themes of the Impossibility of the American Dream very difficult, and depressing, for 9th graders
�� Those very same themes can be connected nicely within the 10th grade curriculum with such works as The Great Gatsby.
�� Of Mice and Men is taught in both the 9th and 10th grades throughout the country.
�� With To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men, 9th grade has an overabundance of Great Depression literature.
�� Of Mice and Men could be the 10th grade summer reading assignment, or at least part of it, in the 2005-2006 school year. This would provide 10th grade with a text that really works for summer reading and sets up the themes of the course very well.
Arguments against it.
�� ��It��s too easy for 10th grade.��
While I can understand this argument, I think it��s a mistake to equate accessibility with easiness. Even though there is action, plenty of dialogue, and clear characters (after reading what I just wrote, I find myself asking, ��Why can��t ��tough�� literature have those things?��), the novel��s underlying themes are still multifaceted and complex. Plus, 10th grade students have an arduous enough time with The Scarlet Letter and Huckleberry Finn. Of Mice and Men gives them a text where the language is not a burdensome barrier to understanding the deeper meaning of a work.
�� ��It��s always worked for the 9th grade.��
Yes, it has. But it��s always worked because teachers expect the students to have read the book, and Summer Bridge ensures that they do. There are plenty of books that are just as accessible that do follow the theme of coming of age in an unjust society that would work better. Steinbeck��s own The Red Pony is just one of many examples of approachable novels that follow the coming of age in an unjust society theme of the course. Also, the 9th grade team is testing out a series of novels this spring in literature circles that follow the course theme; any of those could be a successful replacement.
�� ��9th graders like it.��
Yes, they do for the most part. Few hate it, and even fewer love it. But I find this with most books on the curriculum. I think we get the sense that kids like it because almost all of them have read it (they haven��t learned to fake it yet) and it��s memorable because it��s the first book they read in high school. The same can be achieved with any other number of novels.