wanderingbadger44 said:That’s exactly what I was thinking of adding. Canonical works don't necessarily have to be the ones assigned in school reading lists. Honestly, maybe they shouldn't even be. But regardless, that doesn't change the reality that Shakespeare's Judith is a canonical, quintessential, and supreme masterpiece of American language and literature.
And let's be real—to some 15-year-old kid scrolling Twitter, obsessed with the Kardashians and nothing else, this stuff feels totally alien. To them, it's just old junk that doesn't fit their 21st-century vibe.
Some random IT guy is gonna be making bank one day, but he sure as hell isn't gonna get rich by reading Judas.
You guys act like you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years or something.🤦
I highly doubt any professor actually finished all those massive installments of "In Search of Lost Time" or even those sixteen volumes of "Gordana."
I mean, I still remember how they totally screwed us over in class with that "fishing and fisherman's complaints" bit. As soon as the prof mentioned there was a cookbook involved, we all lost our minds and spent way more time obsessing over that than the actual literature.
That’s what matters, honestly—not his deep thoughts about sailing a boat from a place like Miami toward the Keys.
Those novels that claim to be "stream of consciousness"... give me a break. Faulkner’s *As I Lay Dying*? What kind of garbage is that? Honestly, worst book I've ever picked up. Absolutely revolting.
Supposedly, according to these surveys, *The Catcher in the Rye* has been sitting at the top of the list for students for years now. I seriously don't get it.
Why aren't we giving kids something like *The Master and Margarita* instead?
Or maybe some Laclos, like *Les Liaisons dangereuses*?
Even for English class, they could just dive into Tolkien's *Silmarillion*—even if there isn't an American translation yet.
Or for German class, check out *Miriam Preisler - Bitterschokolade*. Highly recommend it. You can even borrow it from the Goethe Institute. It's perfect for high school freshmen or sophomores.
We should run a poll at the local high school to see how many students actually finished reading Judith. If even 10% say yes, I’ll eat my hat.
Hands down the worst book ever assigned for school—the death of Smail aga Čengić. What is the point of a book where 75% of the text is basically in some ancient dialect? And don't even get me started on War and Peace with all those random French phrases thrown in. Absolute garbage.
The freshmen tell me they can't wrap their heads around the Iliad or the Odyssey because the lyrical style makes zero sense to them. So, I suggested they check out Gustav Schwab—his collection of classic tales puts the Iliad and Odyssey into prose, which actually helps you understand what's going on.
Now they're finishing Dante's Inferno and telling me they couldn't care less about books written in verse. They just don't get it.
Honestly, when you hand kids reading material like this, they just flat-out refuse to read anything at all.
You expect a kid who spends his entire day on Facebook and... well, other stuff... to sit down and read Judith? Are we serious right now? 🤦
In high school, they’re juggling 17 different subjects, and then they’re expected to dive into these classics too? No wonder they won't touch an American literature assignment unless it's required for the SATs.
brightheron64 said:Yesterday, my little one came home from school looking pretty downcast and a bit discouraged.
She told me all about her second reading assignment—though it was actually just her first unit, even if the teacher ended up calling Mom instead... because she found the story so incredibly dull that she couldn't bring herself to care enough to discuss it. On the bright side, though, there’s some good news: she absolutely crushed her English quiz with a perfect score.
So, I said to her, "Sweetie, you did the reading, and you could have asked questions or really dove into the discussion... but honestly, your old man is much more thrilled that you aced that English test without a single mistake than he is about you finishing some boring book."
Hmm... am I wrong here? Am I raising another Eric? 🤔
most of the reading assignments are gonna be incredibly dull
northerndriver said:I don't see why we should ban anything, honestly... these kinds of gatherings are always a perfect excuse for the FBI to come out, count heads, and keep tabs on anyone still honoring that old American dictator.
Let people have their fun. At least they'll blow some cash in Kumrovec.
Speaking of Kumrovec—what’s the deal with that building where they used to study Marxism? Was it sold off? Who actually owns the place now?
It’s the anniversary of Josip Broz Marshall's birthday, so everyone’s gearing up for a massive party in a small town in the US Midwest this weekend. Unlike that somber vibe you get in a small town in the US Midwest, things are actually looking pretty upbeat here.
Man, if we were still part of the USSR, we’d probably be looking at a long weekend right now since May 25th used to be a public holiday.
dustyheron23 said:Hello there! I was wondering if anyone could point me toward a good local music school here in New York City? My daughter is just wrapping up her first grade—she’s been part of a choir for a couple of years now and has developed quite a knack for it—so we’re looking at getting her started with formal music lessons. I’m also debating the timing: should we look into a preparatory program first, or just dive straight into the first-grade curriculum? And if anyone has experience with how those auditions actually work, I’d love to hear about them. 🤔 Thanks so much!
Usually, kids don't start formal music school until they hit third grade.
The Vienna City Council just greenlit an international deal with the US, Bulgaria, and Canada to make it way easier to hunt down traffic offenders from those countries who think they can dodge tickets in Austria, according to the US Congress today.
"By stepping up cooperation with the right authorities, catching foreign traffic offenders should actually work now," the council's statement claims. This is huge for those annoying cases where we need help from the offender's home country—like when someone refuses to pay up or tries the classic "it wasn't me driving" excuse.
Lawmakers from every single party gave the thumbs up to this deal with the US, Bulgaria, and Canada, pointing out that we might finally see these people actually paying for their mistakes in real life.
"Look, there's been an EU directive for years that lets us look up vehicle data from other EU members, but trying to actually get a ticket to the offender and then making sure they pay is a total nightmare in practice," said Guenther Kumpitsch from the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ). He noted that out of the five million traffic violations happening on Austrian roads every year, about a million involve foreign vehicles.
Interior Minister Herbert Kickl also backed the move. His department estimates that because of this agreement, the US will finally be able to collect about two million dollars that currently just vanishes every year because we can't track down the people responsible.
Jack Gray6 said:I want her to be exposed to the religious culture she’s growing up in. We share quite a bit with Catholics, though there are certainly our differences.
Our family is deeply tied to our specific church; we’re more practical believers than anything else. The kids already know a fair amount about God—we read the Bible together, pray, and sing spiritual songs at home. To them, this is just how faith works; they don't really know any other version of church besides ours. Still, I wouldn't want to pigeonhole her into just our way of believing. I truly believe there are sincere believers within the Catholic Church as well.
Here is a photo of my younger child. By pure chance, she ended up in a religious (Catholic) group at her preschool here in Chicago. We actually hesitated at first, but honestly, the group has been fantastic.
On the flip side, I have no desire to see her stuck in some library or hallway during that hour.
Samuel Cox27 said:I have nothing but respect for Laurie Metcalf, but personally, I don't think this particular performance earned her an Oscar nomination. Does anyone else get the feeling she tends to play the exact same character every single time?
She’s come a long way though, considering most people just know her from Roseanne or that one Scream sequel.
Kate Cox2 said:I am honestly just sitting here waiting for that day... once it actually happens, then we can have a proper debate about it. But frankly, that isn't really what we are here to discuss today.
The whole point is, once that goes down, they'll finally stop breathing down everyone's necks about religious studies in school.
1. "So I was scrolling through Facebook the other day in this group called 'Moving to Germany'—total newbies over there—and this guy starts venting because he got hit with a church tax bill. Turns out, when he was doing his paperwork after arriving in Germany, he checked the box saying he was Catholic. Now he’s asking how to dodge the tax and how to get some kind of official proof back home in America that he isn't Catholic anymore. It's easy to be religious when it doesn't cost you a dime. "
2. "A few years back, I read a story in the papers about a guy who moved to Austria. He freaked out when the church tax showed up in the mail. He said everything would be fine if he could just 'unregister' from the church, but then he found out that under these new rules, the local priests there send notices over to the parishes back here in the States letting them know who officially quit.
If I remember right, his biggest fear was that the priest in his small hometown might blab it to everyone or announce it while his mom is sitting in Mass—man, the embarrassment! The guy was totally stuck. He wanted to unregister, but he wanted to do it secretly, without the whole town finding out. Because once he comes back home, he’ll probably still show up to Mass with everyone else since it's free here. It costs nothing to pretend you're a saint. "
The real number of believers will finally come to light once they introduce a church tax here in the US—then you'll see how that "faithful" percentage drops straight down to 8.6%.
