Education in the Chronicles

[Lord Mhoram]

On some forum(cant remember what site...) I saw someone mention in a TC thread that 'in 50 years kids will be reading TC in school', or something like that.

Is this accurate? Does TCTC display important literary elements? Would kids (high schoolers??) benefit academically (we ALL know theyd love it) from reading it?

Is this a stupid idea?

[aliantha]

Hmm. I could see high schoolers reading TCTC -- because of the rape scene, I wouldn't want to ask younger kids to read it.

The problem with teaching TCTC is the time commitment. I think that certainly an open-minded teacher could use any one of the books to illustrate stuff like plot and character development, foreshadowing, SIMILES , etc. But to teach 6 (maybe 9 someday) books would take pretty much a whole semester, if not the whole year. The teacher would have to pick just one. So, of the 6 books of the first 2 Chrons, which would you think would be the best book to teach 'em?

[Lord Mhoram]

Hmm....maybe alll 6 books arent necessary.

Well in LFB there is a lot of character development...but isnt there in all of the books?

[SLKRR]

Is this accurate? Does TCTC display important literary elements? Would kids (high schoolers??) benefit academically (we ALL know theyd love it) from reading it?

Hi, I'm new here (I've read for a while, but just recently registered).

As to this question, I don't know about high schoolers, but my sister-in-law had to read Lord Foul's Bane for a literature class in college. I don't think she cared for it much - her loss. (Then again, the surest way to kill student interest in something is to assign it for homework!)

Peace,
Simeon

[Guest]

well, I just about to say that college would be more appropriate just from the size of the books. and yeah, nothing is ever as much fun if its assigned!

[Lord Mhoram]

She read it for a class? Thats an assignment I would have jumped at in college!

[Guest]

Well, I've not heard of this particular work in a college class before, but waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when I was in college some kids got to read Lord of the Rings. There was even a 3 semester hour class on Tolkein, which was wonderful. I never got to take it (it was at a friend's school, not mine).

[Guest]

If anything, Donaldson's work is a prime example of literary style.

[[Syl]]

That last post was mine. Must've timed out.

[Hile Troy]

I would love to read the Chronicles for an assignment. These books are brilliant modern fantasy literature.

[Vain]

I remember way back that The Hobbit was read to us by our english teacher - at the same time we were learning our maths times tables

[SLKRR]

I would love to read the Chronicles for an assignment. These books are brilliant modern fantasy literature.

I agree with you. For once, I might have actually given a rip about literature class!! As it was, I instead had to forgo studying and sleeping to read the Chronicles. A small price to pay, indeed.

Later,
Simeon

[duchess of malfi]

I would have absolutely loved to read Donaldson or Tolkein for a lit class!
That would have been wonderful!

[Sevothtarte]

(Then again, the surest way to kill student interest in something is to assign it for homework!)

That's it. The Chronicles require a lot of effort on the part of the reader, and they aren't easy to get into (now nice shiny hero to like and identify with, no funny sidekick), and since many pupil's minds seem to work along the lines of "If a teacher wants me to read it, it must be boring", I doubt there'd be much point in trying to make high school kids read them. Their loss.

[Lord Mhoram]

Maybe, but the smarter ones WILL read it! We have high school members here, right? "If a teacher wants me to read it, it must be bad" is what they may think first, but theyre bound to get into it if its as good a book as we say!

Plenty of quality reads requre a lot of effort, btw.

[duchess of malfi]

Yes, they do, and worth every bit of that effort, too!

[Sevothtarte]

Plenty of quality reads requre a lot of effort, btw.

Of course, and I didn't mean to say it's a bad thing, I was just remembering the attitude of many fellow pupils back then...

[Damelon]

I could see LFB being part of a college lit. course. TC is the perfect anti-hero.

[Nav]

TCTC are definitely too big to be read during high school, and individually, with the exception of LFB, the books don't stand alone all that well. That said, High School kids could be asked to work with some extracts, key scenes and suchlike.

Even in terms of college, I'd say that it might be a bit much to make literature students read both chronicles. It's a shame, because there's a lot that could be done with them. You could either compare the first with the second, or the first chronicles with LotR to name but two.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that a literature student had written their thesis on TCTC at some point.

[Nav]

A quick search on google reveals that a few colleges do have The Chronicles on their suggested reading lists. They say that time is the best indicator of whether a work is a classic or not, but I'd say there's a fair chance that it'll make compulsory reading at some point.