I was talking to my brother who was asking about how my older son is doing with schoolwork. I told him he does not want to read literature and do literary analysis. My brother was an average student who wound up being a slacker. He is not a role model for public schooling and I am aware we need to be careful who we listen to for advice. He cracked up when I said my son's reaction. But at least my brother is a male and has accurate memories of his teen years, so I wanted to hear his insight.
My brother said that I should let my son read only the Cliff's Notes which is what all the school kids did in his class. "No one actually read the book!"
I confess I did sometimes also read only the Cliff's Notes. I recall not finishing Great Expectations on time so I crammed with the summaries only. I also recall being lost by Othello in college when I was in my mid-20's and reading the Cliff's Notes.
I also recall always reading the short stories as they were easy to bang out.
I was sitting here thinking about how exciting doing homeschool literary analysis with my kids will be. Thinking of my memory of me not loving it as taught in public school and in college mystified me because I was a bookworm and a huge reader. I loved books and reading. Why did I not enjoy literature in English class? Was it that I just did not always like the books my teachers were forcing me to read? Was it my annoyance with the teacher's pets and the butt kissers in the class who the teacher favored? I was burned out of school and I was sick of doing what everyone was telling me to do. (Wow that just sounded like my older son for a minute.)
So the thought occurred to me how can I expect so much of my homeschooled kids when the adult me likes literature and finds the process of literary analysis interesting (and easy) yet the teenager and young adult me hated it?
The bottom line is my kids have to do a certain amount of literature reading and analysis for education requirements for college admissions and for state homeschooling compliance.
I just wished they actually wanted to do it rather than being forced.