tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post77497125771439955..comments2024-03-27T22:39:08.396-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: among the best stories I first encountered in K-12 textbooks:Todd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-59782888429103350632011-11-07T11:35:19.571-05:002011-11-07T11:35:19.571-05:00Nope.Nope.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-83310031544252843832011-11-05T20:14:52.462-04:002011-11-05T20:14:52.462-04:00too many words!too many words!Alice Changhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10012542046880714130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-38849234400512500272011-11-02T18:21:36.638-04:002011-11-02T18:21:36.638-04:00Tagore is still read here, too, if not so much as ...Tagore is still read here, too, if not so much as he might be.<br /><br />Alas, too much US education is practically about how to sit at a desk and be quiet.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-7209178862634520592011-11-02T13:18:14.972-04:002011-11-02T13:18:14.972-04:00There are several versions of the epics RAMAYANA a...There are several versions of the epics RAMAYANA and MAHABHARATA but the stories are more or less the same. I have never read Markandaya's novel and I'm glad you brought her up. <br /><br />I agree Indian writers are now more visible in the States than at any time in the last century, with the exception of the late R.K. Narayan (I recommend his MALGUDI DAYS). I guess the credit ought to go to the top four Indian writers - Rushdie, Roy (as you pointed out), Amitav Ghosh and Vikram Seth (his GOLDEN GATE novel in verse form is outstanding). <br /><br />Then the diaspora led by Anita Desai and her daughter Kiran Desai (who won the Booker for THE LOSS OF INHERITANCE), Rohinton Mistry (SUCH A LONG JOURNEY) and Jhumpa Lahiri (INTERPRETER OF MALADIES & NAMESAKE). I have deliberately left Naipaul out because he fits in neither category.<br /><br />Yes, our education system is modelled on the Brit system - all theory, little practical; the standard of education is extremely high but it's doing us no good. The American system is better: it actually allows the student to put it to vocational use. Our schools instruct students to mug all the way to 10th standard. Happily, all that is changing now with the advent of several international schools.Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-48528980737933535342011-11-02T12:39:09.284-04:002011-11-02T12:39:09.284-04:00The least I could do, Prashant, and thanks to you ...The least I could do, Prashant, and thanks to you in turn. The Indian gradeschool/college system definitely is on the UK model, as well, clearly...ours is, as you've gathered, not too dissimilar (well, a lot of classroom time...how much education varies widely!). And certainly we read many of the folks you did in my various classes (I had to discover Doyle on my own, though that's rarely difficult in the Anglophone world...but I read his horror fiction before I read Holmes) and Dickens likewise ("The Signal-Man" being the first I read of him, as opposed to seeing adapted drama from his work), and I certainly tore through nearly all of Twain before he arose in any class. <br /><br />My copies of the RAMAYANA and the MAHABHARATA await my perusal, among so much else...we did read NECTAR IN A SIEVE by Kamala Markandaya in high school...is she well-regarded at home? As you also might gather, the awareness of Indian literature in the States is, to put it kindly, limited, and often focused on Markandaya's more recent peers, many in the Indian diaspora, with some exceptions (Roy, for example).Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-27768491563207927902011-11-02T06:06:13.309-04:002011-11-02T06:06:13.309-04:00You read sf in school! In my time we didn't ev...You read sf in school! In my time we didn't even know what sf was (I'm sure)!! My own English textbooks in school introduced me to the delightful, albeit shortened, works of Shaw (Pygmalion), Doyle (The Hound of the Baskervilles), Chekov (A Nincompoop), Dickens (The Pickwick Papers), Twain (Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn) and, of course, Shakespeare as well as Whitman, Wordsworth, Donne, Yeats, Byron and Milton. I guess we have to thank the Brits whose influence lingered long after they left us. <br /><br />Not counting crèche and nursery, K-12 in Indian schools comprises two years of kindergarten (lower and senior), four years of primary (1st to 4th standard or grade), and six years of secondary (5th to 10th standard or grade) followed by college, which is, five years to graduation and two years to post-graduation, if you like. That's a lot of education!<br /><br />By the way, Todd, thanks for the link to 3Cs on your blog — appreciate it.Prashant C. Trikannadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16079354501998741758noreply@blogger.com