I read Animal Farm the other day..

[Saerphe]

We read a Shakespeare play every year, as well as other novels.

Grade 9 - The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare), To Kill a Mockingbird and some obscure novel I don't remember for our independant study.

Grade 10 - Romeo and Juliet, The Lord of the Flies and I started Great Expectations for my independant study, but switched to The Chrysalids

Grade 11 - MacBeth, Frankenstein and I chose Dracula for my independant

Grade 12 - Hamlet, a Kurt Vonnegut one... Slaughterhouse 5 or something (can't remember, sorry!) and I picked The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for my independant study.

5th Year, Creative Writing - We're reading Streetcar Named Desire and The Book Thief right now and we'll be reading The Great Gatsby too at some point

Out of all of these, Dracula and Frankenstein were alright, but the only one I REALLY liked was The Alchemist. It was quite inspiring and I guess it came to me when I needed to read it, if that makes any sense. I highly recommend it.

As much as I tried, I could never get through Frankenstein. I also could never finish Dracula. For some reason, I was just incredibly bored by those books, and I love to read. I read practically everything and anything.. including the dictionary (cover to cover) a couple of times. But I just never was able to read Frankenstein or Dracula.

Well, they were both written in the 1800s, I believe, and they're EXTREMELY wordy. It took me a while to read through them too, and I've been reading the likes of Harry Potter since I was six! Heh.

[GlassOnion]

For me, I can't read 1984. I've tried 3 times, and I'm trying again nowadays.. it's really hard. For some reason, I don't find that to be very interesting. That world in the book is quite like North Korea; actually, North Korea is worse than Oceania, but I love reading about that country yet not 1984.

[zazanomore]

I've read the Silverwing series when I was in middle school. But I can't remember much anymore. I'm gonna look up on those books you mentioned zaza, I'm sure they'd have to be great if you read them 5 times!

I first read them in the 4th grade. I try to read them every summer.

When we were reading 1984, there's this part that was the book inside the book. I remember I was so bored, I just glazed over it. I ended up giving up on that whole section. There were two university level english classes that semester. The other class were permitted to skip through that section, while we had to write a thorough analysis.

[GlassOnion]

I've read the Silverwing series when I was in middle school. But I can't remember much anymore. I'm gonna look up on those books you mentioned zaza, I'm sure they'd have to be great if you read them 5 times!

I first read them in the 4th grade. I try to read them every summer.

When we were reading 1984, there's this part that was the book inside the book. I remember I was so bored, I just glazed over it. I ended up giving up on that whole section. There were two university level english classes that semester. The other class were permitted to skip through that section, while we had to write a thorough analysis.

Did you ever do thorough, painful 10-12 minute commentaries? I remember we had those as our final exams. Randomly given a passage from a book or a poem you've never seen before when you walk in, you have 15 mins to prep and off you speak!

[zazanomore]

No, but thank god!

What our teachers always made us do though was "teach for a day". So for an entire period, you had to plan an Independent study project, and present for the entire 75 minute class. Torture.

[kaylayuh]

Canadians seem to have a much better education system than Americans do.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

Canadians seem to have a much better education system than Americans do.

Almost everyone does anymore, except third world countries. We still have world class higher education, especially post-graduate, but how long can that last with such a weak base K-12? This has terrified me for most of my adult life. No wonder we listen to, and even elect, some of the igonorant clowns we do. Democracy rests on the assumption of an electorate educated enough to make good decisions and I'm not sure we are there anymore!

[GlassOnion]

*cough* Palin.

[kaylayuh]

Canadians seem to have a much better education system than Americans do.

Almost everyone does anymore, except third world countries. We still have world class higher education, especially post-graduate, but how long can that last with such a weak base K-12? This has terrified me for most of my adult life. No wonder we listen to, and even elect, some of the igonorant clowns we do. Democracy rests on the assumption of an electorate educated enough to make good decisions and I'm not sure we are there anymore!

With the way our education system is, I'm not at all surprised that politicians like Sarah Palin are taken seriously. The fact that she thinks she has an abundance of relevant foreign policy experience because she can see Russia (or Russian controlled waters/airspace) from her house makes me want to move to Canada.

[zazanomore]

*cough* Palin.

Seriously

Speaking of politics, are you planning on voting this spring GlassOnion?

With the way our education system is, I'm not at all surprised that politicians like Sarah Palin are taken seriously. The fact that she thinks she has an abundance of relevant foreign policy experience because she can see Russia (or Russian controlled waters/airspace) from her house makes me want to move to Canada.

We're not perfect, but yes, go Canada go!