Am I getting my first cold of 2018? Quite possibly. I only had two last year, and that is nigh-on miraculous for me, since I’m usually just counting the days between them. But whether or not I’m a picture of health (let’s face it – at the best of times, I’m not), here is a book, a link, and a blog post. Happy weekend!
1.) The blog post – I love, love, love Best Books of the Year blog posts. Don’t we all? I could link to any number of them, but here is the post from Juliana at The Blank Garden. I’ve chosen it because I also love book stats, and Juliana doesn’t skimp on those.
2.) The link – my friend Lorna sent a Guardian article to me, all about literature courses in Australia and how unprepared students are. It’s interesting, in that the author has (to my mind) lots of good points, but also demands that people read and act in a way she believes to be right. There’s a lot going on. It’s an interesting read.
3.) The book – I’ve bought it! Because I can buy books again, without restraint! (And, in fact, I had a book token I hadn’t used.) It’s Appointment in Arezzo by Alan Taylor, and falls into one of my very favourite categories of literature: memoirs about authors by people with a unique perspective. Taylor started by interviewing Muriel Spark, then became her friend, and this slim book tells the tale of it all.
The Guardian article is spot on. Having worked in Education as a speech pathologist 35 yrs (21 yrs Australia) I was and continue to be appalled at how much university graduates especially in teaching don’t know. It is all theory and no content. How can people teach what is not in their head? When I assessed students in language development and told one 4th grade teacher of several years experience his student wasn’t using many verbs in his conversation…his reply?.. What is a verb? I never had these problems working in American schools (14 years). So sad. Thanks for sharing.
Im no sure whether to howl in rage or cry about the situation described in that Guardian article. How can an academic institute let people pass exams when they haven’t been to a single lecture or tutorial.and then I remembered when I was an external examiner for a postgrad course at a British university and the pressure I came under to pass students who had failed their exams. The argument was used that they had paid a lot for the course which to me was completly irrelevant and set a dangerous precedent. How depressing t lean that this attitude is prevailing still.
I’ve been listening to the Spark book on Radio 4. I’d love to read this too.
Hurrah, book buying! Look forward to hearing what you think of the Spark book! I don’t know if I dare read the Guardian piece – it might make me too angry and sad….
Thank you for mentioning my blog, Simon! :)