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What the H*** is the point in classic literature????

AP_piano295 said:
yeah 61 is a bit high I got a 45 thats 45 out of 100 on my final essay on to kill a mockingbird and I worked on that for three days strait. Honestly thought it was good she gave me a b- and b plus on the other major papers I turned in I was running with a b plus in that class in till that essay grade hit... my rents wernt happy about that c-....mebe I should start smoking a 61 would be better.
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a numerical grade for a math test or a multiple choice/true-false test makes sense, but not for an essay in high school or college

and 45 out of 100, that's stiff and you will have teachers like that from time to time...i had a professor who taught business psychology in college and on his tests only 100% percent was an "A", and 99% percent was a "B"....he was hated, of course, but i learned a lot from him and since the course cost a grand, that's what i paid for anyway...to learn...which i did, but i didn't expect to get my butt kicked...i got a 98 or 98.5...which was a "B" :)

but most colleges don't grade that stiffly...private colleges need the tuition money since that's their source of income so they tend not to give a lot of "D" and "F" grades, but to keep their reputation, and perhaps their accredidation, they make a "B" around 85% percent and an "A" at 95% percent or even higher...even to the point of letting only the 100% percent people get the "A"

so for those straight "A" high school students (or better with a different scale) who get into a private college like stanford or the equivalent, there is very little chance that you will graduate from college with a 4.0...it's just the way it is
 
I won't do your homework for you, but there is a strong argument for Creon as a tragic hero, if I recall well from high school, which was quite a ways back. Of course, one can also make the same argument as to Antigone.
 
jefhatfield said:
a numerical grade for a math test or a multiple choice/true-false test makes sense, but not for an essay in high school or college
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Rubrics are all the rage in my district. Ten points for effort. Ten points for mechanics. 20 points for clarity. So forth. In this our era of "accountability," English teachers are expected to show quantifiable numbers, even when grading essays. Even the new writing section of the SAT gets graded by "number."

Nothing like being forced to pretend you're not subjective.
 
thedude110 said:
Rubrics are all the rage in my district. Ten points for effort. Ten points for mechanics. 20 points for clarity. So forth. In this our era of "accountability," English teachers are expected to show quantifiable numbers, even when grading essays. Even the new writing section of the SAT gets graded by "number."

Nothing like being forced to pretend you're not subjective.
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well then the students should assign numerical values to the janitor's work in the bathrooms and to the cooks in the cafeteria
 
gwuMACaddict said:
the point of classical literature is to meet girls. you're all missing the point.
attractive girls in my engineering classes (major):0
attractive girls in my english classes (minor):lots
;) :D
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Perhaps the exception proves the rule, but I was at Cal Poly on Monday (Dedication of the Grant M Brown Engineering building to a late relative in honour of the 2.5 bargeloads of cash another relative donated) and after lunch we got a bit of a tour of the Aero Lab, where they are building satellites. My 94 year old mother in law (who was born on the prairie, in a house with no running water on a farm worked by horse-drawn plow) got to hold a working prototype of a remote-sensing satellite in her hands. That's a mind-bender...

Anyway, the young lady grad student giving the tour was drop-dead gorgeous as well as being smart as a whip. Please, though, If my wife asks, tell her I didn't notice... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Really nice tan, too....;)


And to the original topic, in the 70's the school system in my area dispensed with teaching the classics entirely, unless you signed up for the single Western Civilization elective course. There has been an entire cultural chunk missing out of my life since then, mostly noticeable in references in reading and conversation that I didn't have a clue about. Wasn't until as an adult, I made friends with a retired university professor that I started 'catching up' in weekly lessons of tea, toast, bit of talk about baseball, then reading classics out loud to each other and discussing them. It still hurts that he's passed away.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Perhaps the exception proves the rule, but I was at Cal Poly on Monday (Dedication of the Grant M Brown Engineering building to a late relative in honour of the 2.5 bargeloads of cash another relative donated) and after lunch we got a bit of a tour of the Aero Lab, where they are building satellites. My 94 year old mother in law (who was born on the prairie, in a house with no running water on a farm worked by horse-drawn plow) got to hold a working prototype of a remote-sensing satellite in her hands. That's a mind-bender...

Anyway, the young lady grad student giving the tour was drop-dead gorgeous as well as being smart as a whip. Please, though, If my wife asks, tell her I didn't notice... that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Really nice tan, too....;)


And to the original topic, in the 70's the school system in my area dispensed with teaching the classics entirely, unless you signed up for the single Western Civilization elective course. There has been an entire cultural chunk missing out of my life since then, mostly noticeable in references in reading and conversation that I didn't have a clue about. Wasn't until as an adult, I made friends with a retired university professor that I started 'catching up' in weekly lessons of tea, toast, bit of talk about baseball, then reading classics out loud to each other and discussing them. It still hurts that he's passed away.
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i was at cal poly as an undergrad and there were a lot of pretty girls there in all majors

remember america's top model tv show? well the winner is from my hometown of less than 2000 people so our whole town watched it...the winner was a male model and now he is a prominent male supermodel, so now people talk slowly to him and treat him like he's an idiot from the movie "zoolander"

btw, he's an astrophysics major in college
 
Stampyhead said:
Either way, it's the funniest thing I have seen in a long time. I would have given him points just for making me laugh so hard.
If you really get desperate, ask Strong Bad to help you write your paper:
http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail64.html
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I printed it out and read it to my friends. They thought it was hilarious.

Then, we all took turns rapping.

/Rollin' in my benzo, poppin my colla!
//WTF IS A BENZO?
///like.. a bicycle or something?
////BENZO? Pft!
 
katie ta achoo said:
I printed it out and read it to my friends. They thought it was hilarious.

Then, we all took turns rapping.

/Rollin' in my benzo, poppin my colla!
//WTF IS A BENZO?
///like.. a bicycle or something?
////BENZO? Pft!
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I'm guessing it's a Mercedes Benz, but I 'm not exactly sure. You'll have to ask Dr. Dre, he's the only one who really knows...
 
Have to agree with PlaceofDis's first post. Classic lit gives you a sense of the world as it was. Literature comes to be labelled "classic" because it is generally considered to be a good representation of storytelling at that time, and probably it addresses common themes.

Not as far back as Oedipus, but read "Great Gatsby" and you will have a good feel for American culture and language of that time. Not many writers of that caliber anymore IMO.

Orwell's "1984" has a good story (how many times has it been retold, in one form or another?), and the terms he coined in that book survive to this day.

Plus, if you study literature you'll know to expect your wife to hit you if you suggest "Oedipus" as a baby name...
 
Would anyone consider Creons state as a villain in Oedipus at Colonus to sort of negate his ability to become a hero in Antigone. I already turned in my essay so now im just talking about it because I want to find out if my arguments are good at all.
 
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