Fucking Public Schools

I was talking to a high school English teacher and discovered that they apparently don't have high school students read books in the California public education system.  Instead, they read essays, and learn about rhetorical tools.  This teacher teaches the 12th grade.  When I was in the 12th grade, I read A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.  I read Aristotle's Poetics.  I read Siddhartha, and The Old Man and the Sea, and many other things.  


Rhetorical devices got part of one day.  Mr. Alecia, who was, admittedly, a much better than average teacher, explained what each of them were, and then said, "They're logical fallacies.  Don't use them."  This is exactly the treatment that rhetorical devices deserve.  Teach people to identify them, teach them that they're a crutch for people who are trying to argue unsupportable positions, and make them read books.  


Granted, this is Southern California that we're talking about, so there's also an issue with proficiency at the English language in general.  I was ready to write this nonsense, book-less curriculum off as a necessary evil to build proficiency in English, when she started talking about when she was teaching in LA.  Apparently, students who have been educated for twelve years in the Los Angeles school system are much, much worse at reading and writing English than students who recently emigrated from Mexico.  


Mexico's school system is apparently better than Los Angeles'.  


America for the win.