Good Lord and Butter

[unknownfate]

There is some unseen force that has decreed that classic children's fiction must also be tragic. I've been taking an online children's lit course, and I had to read Charlotte's Web and Bridge to Terabithia in the same week.

I've read Charlotte's Web before, of course. I wept brokenly with my entire 3rd grade class when we watched the cartoon. But it makes me wonder why so many classics of childhood books tell us that you only realize what you're made of through gut-wrenching grief. Sure, being tested is part of life, but must we dwell on it in grade school?

A quick list: Where the Red Fern Grows, The Yearling, A Taste of Blackberries, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Charlotte's Web, Old Yeller, The Red Pony, and now I can Bridge to Terabithia to it. There's a few more, but I've managed to block them from my mind for the moment. And I had to read all of these by the 5th grade. And don't even get me going on the list of childhood movies.

Then again, maybe it's all part of desensitizing process to prepare you for high school. Because you can't show weakness there anymore than you can bleed in a shark tank.

Comments

[katieisbonkers.livejournal.com]

Don't forget Anne Frank!!! We had to read that in 5th grade. Nobody TOLD me that she didn't make it! I found out by reading the epilogue.

[bane-6.livejournal.com]

Augh! The Diary of Anne Frank! We had to watch that movie toooo!