I was just pondering the demise of a once favourite tv show towards what looks like the likely cancellation of the show. Somewhere its gone from action and excitement to something less like that and every week instead focuses on the characters, their interaction, their history. In short its lost its way.

This line of thought got me thinking about the old school days and in particular English. You know how it went, you would be assigned books through the year and you had to read the books. You would pull the books appart looking for hte symbolism, underlying metaphors, characters and their actions. You would write long essays detailing your opinions and you would have to make a point of using the correct style and footnotes to quote the book.

I don’t know about you but i hated doing high school english. It was not just that i was never good at English or the stuff that went with it from public speaking through to my hand writing. I did however love to read and i would read for hours on end every day. Reviewing books, looking for underlying metaphors and symbolism kind of killed that dead. It took the pleasure and the fun out of reading. And thats a shame.

I last did English in 1988, wonder if it is still destroying the joy of reading? I failed English then and i would probably still fail it now. Yet i can write this blog, i have written complicated and detailed documents, opinions and interpretations on awards. I have a good vocabuary, i can spell most of what i write. And i blog, can’t forget that. Did i fail English at school or did school English fail me? I wonder.

Tags: school english essays education reading books