One Flew Over the English Class
October 31, 2007 · Written by Melissa Donovan
By the time I started high school, I was already an avid writer. I kept a journal and a notebook full of poetry. Social activities started to gain priority in my life and I found myself reading less during those formative years. However, I could easily swallow a novel assigned by any English teacher in a day or two.
During my senior year, we were assigned One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, one of the pillar literary works read by all high schoolers. I read it in a day and returned to school only to discover that we would be reading almost the entire novel aloud in class. This was, in my view, unacceptable. High school seniors should be beyond reading aloud during class. I stopped attending class until the Cuckoo reading was completed. We watched the movie and were assigned an essay, which I aced. I will never forget the words my teacher said to me when he handed me back the paper, “You’re a very bright girl, Melissa, it’s a shame you don’t show up for class more often.”
At that age, I was inclined to do little more than roll my eyes and return to my desk. If only I had spoken up and informed that so-called educator that I’d read the entire book on the day he handed it out, that the class periods I’d missed were spent at home writing poetry, and that a roomful of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds reading a novel out loud as if they were still in elementary school was the real shame. My absences affected my final grade, despite the fact that the actual work I turned in always received an A grade.
I’ve always carried that moment with me, and wished I could have found the nerve - the desire even - to tell that man that my grade and attendance were more a reflection of the public school system and his teaching skills than it was a demonstration of my own abilities. After all, he was the football coach and rumor had it he was teaching English as a result of cutbacks, and that it was an obligation that allowed him to continue managing the football team.
Now, many years later, I don’t wonder why signs posted around business offices are printed with blatant grammatical errors. It is no mystery to me why many of the e-mails I receive from friends and business associates are fraught with misused punctuation and poor spelling, or why I’ve encountered published novels containing written sentences that are not even coherent.
When English teachers are not allowed to teach grammar and sentence structure beyond elementary school, when athletic coaches are forced to teach academic subjects only so that they can continue to manage the sports team, and when kids who are about to graduate high school are reading at a level which warrants reading aloud in class, it’s no wonder that the state of writing in today’s world is in shambles.
This not meant as a tirade against the public school system, though I suppose it qualifies. It’s a reminder that not all students who skip class are off taking drugs and flirting with the opposite sex. I doubt my teachers realized that my many absences in school were a red flag not to my delinquent status, but to the fact that I was bored, unchallenged, and frustrated. I could look back on memories like my episode with the football coach turned English teacher and feel cheated, but instead I use it as an experience that has taught me about the world — one that allows me to sympathize with those of my peers who were not pushed to learn proper writing skills (those who actually needed to read aloud in class), along with those who were passed over just because they seemed to sail through with little effort.
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I was bored too, but I never had the guts to skip class. I usually read ahead, my finger holding the place where the class was for when it was my turn to read aloud. I’m guessing your school didn’t have AP English? Mine either.
I was extremely disappointed in my senior year when I took a new creative writing class that was offered. We had a vocabulary “challenge” every day, and I didn’t learn a single word; I knew them all already. And I didn’t exactly feel challenged to write anything creative in class either. It was such a relief to get to college and take classes where I could actually learn.
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Wow! It’s actually very reassuring to know that there were others who skipped school out of frustration and boredom. I always felt dragged along in school. Learning at the speed and abilities of the least intelligent student was aggravating.
I’ve learnt so much more as an independent learner since leaving school all those years ago. Unfortunately, I skipped classes so often that I didn’t actually graduate and I dropped out completely instead of going on to college. The lack of credentials is now one of my deepest regrets.
Hello…Man i just love your blog, keep the cool posts comin..holy Thursday . Katie Couric
I sympathize totally, and admit that my own frustration as an educator and teacher of high school seniors caused me to stop after, “I’ve always carried that moment with me, and wished I could have found the nerve - the desire even - to tell that man that my grade and attendance were more a reflection of the public school system and his teaching skills than it was a demonstration of my own abilities,” and comment prematurely.
If your class is anything like the ones I teach, you are the ONLY one who read the novel. I, personally, refuse to read aloud in class (except for a few chapters of “A Clockwork Orange,” just to get them into it — the language is confusing at first.)
For refusing to read aloud in class at the SENIOR level I am HATED. Expecting them to finish Orwell’s 1984 in 3.5 weeks was so UNREASONABLE that it elicited angry emails from parents. Seriously.
Your teacher was probably faced with a situation in which he had to choose between hooking the 75% who *hate* reading and would voluntarily have teeth or limbs removed than read a book, and sacrificing you, the gifted. It’s the fault of the horrible system that he had to do that, but I doubt he enjoyed it.
That he said to you that it was a shame you didn’t come to class is proof that he was aware of the deal with the devil the system forced him to make.
Okay, I’ve calmed down and read the rest of the post, and you’re right. Coaches should not be allowed to teach academic classes, with rare exceptions. Very rare.
But I myself have landed in the same predicament, regretted it, and said something similar to a gifted student. And I think I was right. There’s value (and learning) in teaching and leading others, which you could have been called upon to do. If the class was boring when you were there, imagine how boring it was when you weren’t!
Hey!…I Googled for ashley scott, but found your page about lew Over the English Class : Writing Forward…and have to say thanks. nice read. Ashley Massaro