Exploring the Depths of Literature through Characterization and Themes

The podcast is back!  We apologize for the hiatus, technical in origin, and are delighted to have returned, now with this conversation with fellow English teacher Elizabeth Eames.  Together we discuss The Atlantic's article "The Elite College Students Who Can't Read Books" by Rose Horowitch.  At Brookewood, especially in the upper school English department, we make a point of teaching students to read books in their entirety, rather than rely on an anthology of excerpts.  Teaching with excerpts has its place, but too often the result is an overly simplified understanding of ideas, and excerpts leave the door too open to an over-emphasis on one point or another, often to promulgate a particular theory, philosophy, or stand.  In general, we like our literature more complex than that.