I’m not going to argue in favor of the Common Core. I realize there are concerns, the primary one being national vs. local government control. But, PLEASE, if you want to blog about how terrible the Common Core is, PLEASE (did I already say that?) do not blow the suggested reading list out of proportion—or your other arguments will lose some credibility with me.
Do not write:
Non-fiction manuals are now required to compose 70% of your child’s “literature” by the time they graduate.
And then list the following books:
Petroski, Henry. “The Evolution of the Grocery Bag.” California Invasive Plant Council. Invasive Plant Inventory Kurlansky, Mark. Cod: A Biography of the Fish That Changed the World. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/U.S. Department of Energy. Recommended Levels of Insulation FedViews by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Calishain, Tara, and Rael Dornfest. Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Smarter Searching, 2nd Edition Fischetti, Mark. “Working Knowledge: Electronic Stability Control.” U.S. General Services Administration. Executive Order 13423: Strengthening Federal Environmental, Energy, and Transportation Management
Gawande, Atul. “The Cost Conundrum: Health Care Costs in McAllen, Texas.”
Even that list isn’t as terrible as it might seem at first glance. If Kurlansky’s book Salt: A World History is any indication (I loved it), Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World is likely an engaging, curious look at world history through the odd (but fascinating) lens of cod. I wouldn’t be surprised if Petroski’s The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are is just as fascinating. In fact, these are just the sort of “living” narratives I’d choose as reading material for my high school students—the type of books that awaken a certain curiosity and wonder in students. Certainly, they couldn’t be more dry than a high school science text book.
Let’s pick apart the introductory statement, and let’s start with the choice of the word “manual.” According to that statement, the following books would be considered manuals:
A Weed Is a Flower: The Life of George Washington Carver by Aliki (lovely picture book)
The Year At Maple Hill Farm by the Provensens (one of my favorite picture books by two of my favorite writers/illustrators)
A Medieval Feast by Aliki (I just purchased this one for our collection)
Lincoln, A Photobiography (fantastic book)
A Drop Of Water: A Book of Science and Wonder (just added it to my Amazon cart)
What the World Eats (fascinating)
A History of US by Joy Hakim (“living” narrative history) John Adams. “Letter on Thomas Jefferson”
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave (autobiography)
Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat (speech by Winston Churchill)
Travels with Charley in Search of America by John Steinbeck The Preamble to the U.S. Constitution
The Number Devil: A Mathematical Adventure (um, didn’t I just recommend that one for “living” math studies?)
The Story of Art by Gombrich
The Great Composers: An Illustrated Guide to the Lives, Key Works and Influences of Over 120 Renowned Composers
Euclid’s Elements
The Story of Science by Joy Hakim (love!)
”Classifying the Stars” by Annie J. Cannon (we just read a wonderful picture book about this astronomer)
Circumference: Eratosthenes and the Ancient Quest to Measure the Globe
1776 by David McCullough Speeches by Washington, Lincoln, Patrick Henry, Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr… Maya Angelou Elie Wiesel Thomas Paine Alexis de Tocqueville…
Where should I stop? That reads like a curricula of “living” books for a rich, integrated classical education. A “Great Books” list for high school humane letters classes contains many such non-fiction selections.
But maybe I don’t get it.
Let’s pick apart the second half of the above introductory statement: 70% of your child’s “literature.” This phrase seems to imply that non-fiction will replace 70% of the literature being read in Lit class. The above titles represent fine arts, history, geography, social studies, math, and science. I, for one, think that reading excellent books should not be isolated as a “literature class activity.” Absolutely, these living books and documents should be integrated throughout the curriculum in all subjects. And if a school fails to do so, putting all the pressure and expectations on their literature teachers, that seems (to me) to be a failure at a local level.
“But where are the literature suggestions?” you may be asking. You can check out for yourself the suggested texts of the Common Core. But here is a sample of authors:
Arnold Lobel, Tomie dePaola, Esther Averill, Christina Rosetti, Langston Hughes, A.A. Milne, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Edward Lear, William Steig, Cynthia Rylant, Robert Frost, Rudyard Kipling, James Thurber, Allen Say, Antoine de Saint Exupery, William Blake, Carl Sandburg, Mark Twain, Madeleine L’Engle, Rosemary Sutcliff, Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Homer, Ovid, Voltaire, O’Henry, Bradbury, Harper Lee, Sophocles, Shakespeare, John Donne, Chaucer, Austen, Poe, Bronte, Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, Morrison, Melville, Chekhov…
Swoon.
Honestly, for all of you who enjoy my book lists and suggestions, just print off the suggested texts of the Common Core and go to the library. That’s what we do here at Mt. Hope. Read good books. About everything.
Rant over.
(No, I don’t want to debate Common Core. I just don’t want to see another blog post listing the three scientific manuals from a list of a few hundred reading selections.)