Yes! We just wrote about the historical books that are quietly disappearing. https://restorechildhood.substack.com/p/they-quietly-let-the-best-childrens It is important for students to read historical texts that instill pride in Western history and Western values. Our kids are not reading the same books we gre up reading so they will not have the same values.
Absolutely true but unfortunately in most public schools after a steady diet of junk books, by the time a student is looking at high school, most great books are frighteningly beyond their intellectual grasp
This is so true. Imagine! 1619 as a foundational text. or anything by these America hating people. Such propaganda - and a prime example of 'if a new gen doesn't know what the civilization was based on it's doomed.' You can't give ex-slaves weapons (as the Romans found out via Spartacus) and in this case: influencing our young is tantamount to that. They have a vested interest in bringing down the status quo that earlier had enslaved them. (not that they are capable of contributing something better - just nihilism).
So C.S. Lewis makes so many good pts. (Here's the irony: when I was a young traveler ('vagabond') in Bangkok various books would show up on the trail and I found Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. And I was not impressed. Esp by his sense of the absolute evil of the malevolent creatures. But I also came across 'Beautiful Losers' by Leonard Cohen and had recently shared a stage with him in a Tel Aviv concert he had given. (played the tambourine cuz i had just ended up on stage with the group). But anyway, it was really well written and in a way very relevant to the ideas of the day: how politicians worked etc. But I still maintain that Lewis' essays are worth reading despite his limited gifts as a novelist. Read great books FIRST!
Certainly agree, but the world seemingly universally agrees all old books are bad books. There is a whole subreddit (r/BookShelvesDetective) dedicated to book sleuthing where mostly women post their mostly male partner’s book shelves and ask the internet to spot any red flags. Lewis and Tolkien are perhaps the only two that show up and do not get “red flagged”. But that is because those are limited to their fiction. Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man would be grounds for recommending a break up. The only tolerated old books are those of the Atheist Philosophers. One of these days I’ll post my book shelves and report back how quickly I get banned.
The cited books by Kendi and Hannah-Jones are opinions influenced by shallow history and mischaracterization of present situations and conditions. It is doubtful that they will withstand the test of time. As another commentator to this post rightly observed, they are propaganda for causes that are not entirely clear. An non-exhaustive canon of books would include the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; Plato's dialogues; selected works of Aristotle, Shakespeare, John Locke, Adam Smith, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky; the Federalist Papers (especially No. 10), Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner. Would also include the King James Bible with the Apocrypha.
How about an alternative list? I’m struggling because many excellent books of earlier eras contain ideas, language and assumptions that would get a school-aged reader in trouble in today’s schools.
Yes! We just wrote about the historical books that are quietly disappearing. https://restorechildhood.substack.com/p/they-quietly-let-the-best-childrens It is important for students to read historical texts that instill pride in Western history and Western values. Our kids are not reading the same books we gre up reading so they will not have the same values.
Absolutely true but unfortunately in most public schools after a steady diet of junk books, by the time a student is looking at high school, most great books are frighteningly beyond their intellectual grasp
Brilliant. Sadly I doubt it will be followed
This is so true. Imagine! 1619 as a foundational text. or anything by these America hating people. Such propaganda - and a prime example of 'if a new gen doesn't know what the civilization was based on it's doomed.' You can't give ex-slaves weapons (as the Romans found out via Spartacus) and in this case: influencing our young is tantamount to that. They have a vested interest in bringing down the status quo that earlier had enslaved them. (not that they are capable of contributing something better - just nihilism).
So C.S. Lewis makes so many good pts. (Here's the irony: when I was a young traveler ('vagabond') in Bangkok various books would show up on the trail and I found Perelandra by C.S. Lewis. And I was not impressed. Esp by his sense of the absolute evil of the malevolent creatures. But I also came across 'Beautiful Losers' by Leonard Cohen and had recently shared a stage with him in a Tel Aviv concert he had given. (played the tambourine cuz i had just ended up on stage with the group). But anyway, it was really well written and in a way very relevant to the ideas of the day: how politicians worked etc. But I still maintain that Lewis' essays are worth reading despite his limited gifts as a novelist. Read great books FIRST!
Stephan Morrow
Artistic Director
The Great American Play Series
Certainly agree, but the world seemingly universally agrees all old books are bad books. There is a whole subreddit (r/BookShelvesDetective) dedicated to book sleuthing where mostly women post their mostly male partner’s book shelves and ask the internet to spot any red flags. Lewis and Tolkien are perhaps the only two that show up and do not get “red flagged”. But that is because those are limited to their fiction. Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man would be grounds for recommending a break up. The only tolerated old books are those of the Atheist Philosophers. One of these days I’ll post my book shelves and report back how quickly I get banned.
The cited books by Kendi and Hannah-Jones are opinions influenced by shallow history and mischaracterization of present situations and conditions. It is doubtful that they will withstand the test of time. As another commentator to this post rightly observed, they are propaganda for causes that are not entirely clear. An non-exhaustive canon of books would include the surviving plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; Plato's dialogues; selected works of Aristotle, Shakespeare, John Locke, Adam Smith, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky; the Federalist Papers (especially No. 10), Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner. Would also include the King James Bible with the Apocrypha.
How about an alternative list? I’m struggling because many excellent books of earlier eras contain ideas, language and assumptions that would get a school-aged reader in trouble in today’s schools.