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Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

notesfrompoland.com

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Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#51

Post by zaksoup »

caymanjim wrote: post #34
zaksoup wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to start a flame war over book choice but forcing kids to read the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and Shakespeare are probably what is causing such marked disinterest in the first place. There are so many interesting and valuable works of writing, fiction and non-fiction, that can captivate and entertain modern children that aren't unapproachable tomes translated from ancient, dead languages, or written in Iambic Pentamet…

Where and when did you go to school such that you were given a Bible to read? I started school in the US in the 1970s and never saw or heard anything more religious than the Pledge of Allegiance or a Christmas decoration.

Here is the list of school districts in CA alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_districts_in_Ca...

Just because you never experienced Christian propaganda in your public school district in your state doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If your town is mostly religious, mostly Christian, and the oversight mechanisms for something like this happen require a complaint to be filed, who is going to complain? Saying "I never experienced this in my school in the 70s" is about as relevant to somebody else's experience of school in the early naughts as saying "I've never been to a baseball game, so I don't believe baseball actually exists".

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#52

Post by ceceron »

billfruit wrote: post #33
Imlus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, reading / playing witcher you'd get better morale / class diversification understanding than reading Bible or Illiad, Shakespeare is definetely not for school readings, if you're not interested in the actual literature that book has no value in your life. I, personally, love reading books. But forcing that material to 12-18 and saying read these classic ones just pushes back youth from reading at all. You eit…

Poland has a good literary heritage, which was partly responsible for the coalescing of Poland as a nation. So I suppose many of books and authors from that tradition could be essential reading for Polish young people.. I am not from Poland myself. Perhaps Henrik Sienkiewicz is one of those authors.. Perhaps they should prescribe the Witcher novels too.

I've read Witcher in my school (but only one short novel to be fair, rest I've finished just because I liked it) ;)

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#54

Post by ceceron »

q3k wrote: post #39
caymanjim wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where and when did you go to school such that you were given a Bible to read? I started school in the US in the 1970s and never saw or heard anything more religious than the Pledge of Allegiance or a Christmas decoration.

Poland has mandatory Bible reading/analysis at primary school level (4th-6th grade). [1] [1] - “Biblia: stworzenie świata i człowieka oraz wybrane przypowieści ewangeliczne, w tym o siewcy, o talentach, o pannach roztropnych, o miłosiernym Samarytaninie” ( https://isap.sejm.gov.pl/isap.nsf/download.xsp/WDU2017000035... )

Still, to be fair, those are just short fragments of the Bible. Nobody asks kids to read the whole Bible. Also, at least when I was a child, we read Bible in comparison with other ancient texts. Last but not the least, so many books/poems are inspired by Bible, that's it difficult to understand them without at least glimpsing over the Bible itself.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#56

Post by cryoshon »

Minor49er wrote: post #38

They should put Deus Ex on the list

unfortunately, i think you'll find that DX is far too edgy for any school curriculum because it's far too true to life.

school curriculums are not intended to capture the nuance of how a "terrorist" group like the NSF might gain popular support and even the moral high ground as a result of their efforts to reduce the inequality of vaccine distribution. an inequality of distribution that our society is all but destined to replicate, as soon as we have a vaccine for COVID-19.

nor are school curriculums interested in provoking critical thought by posing questions like "what if powerful groups of people are conspiring for their own gain, even when it results in mass misery?" this too we have already covered in the pandemic, when trump's political allies recieved preferential access to the right to sell protective equipment that was in short supply even when their need for it was minimal and the consequences of their greed was mass death.

put differently: school curriculums exist to prevent enlightened dissenters from existing, not to make more of them. i'd be all for having it be part of a course, but it's just too real.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#57

Post by beyondcompute »

I am surprised why it took school system so long. And despite the apparent collapse of traditional education, it is surprisingly resistant to change. I would also include some works from Demoscene, some newer electronic music (at least from the 80s :)).

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#58

Post by ivanhoe »

Minor49er wrote: post #44
zaksoup wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to start a flame war over book choice but forcing kids to read the Bible, Homer's Iliad, and Shakespeare are probably what is causing such marked disinterest in the first place. There are so many interesting and valuable works of writing, fiction and non-fiction, that can captivate and entertain modern children that aren't unapproachable tomes translated from ancient, dead languages, or written in Iambic Pentamet…

The Bible, Homer's Iliad, and Shakespeare's works are some of the most important ones in Western culture. I wouldn't say they're unapproachable at all. They may be more difficult to read than a modern teen fiction novel, but they contain archetypes and language patterns that were foundational for works that came afterward. Thinking about it now, Beowulf should be added to this list. That's another great way to teach…

I hated Shakespeare when I was forced to read it in my language, translation tried to keep the spirit of the language, but really made it just sound archaic and complete incomprehensible to us (high-school kids not really interested in the whole deal). Only many years later, almost by accident, I've discovered how Shakespeare's work was really meant to sound, making the story itself so much more approachable.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#59

Post by dragonwriter »

zaksoup wrote: post #51
caymanjim wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where and when did you go to school such that you were given a Bible to read? I started school in the US in the 1970s and never saw or heard anything more religious than the Pledge of Allegiance or a Christmas decoration.

Here is the list of school districts in CA alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_districts_in_Ca... Just because you never experienced Christian propaganda in your public school district in your state doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If your town is mostly religious, mostly Christian, and the oversight mechanisms for something like this happen require a complaint to be filed, who is going to complain? Sa…

> If your town is mostly religious, mostly Christian, and the oversight mechanisms for something like this happen require a complaint to be filed, who is going to complain?

As is the case in many of the landmark freedom-from-religion-in-schools cases, Christians.

See, the thing is, America (and even most—but not all, sure—small towns in America) have lots of different flavors of Christianity, and they don't agree on much (especially when you include the JWs and other groups that other Christians view as not-Christian rather than Christians-who-are-in-error). So, typically, sneaking in your brand of Christian propaganda pisses off all the other brands of Christians.

Re: Poland puts computer game “This War of Mine” on school reading list

#60

Post by greggman3 »

throwaway894345 wrote: post #40
Imlus wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, reading / playing witcher you'd get better morale / class diversification understanding than reading Bible or Illiad, Shakespeare is definetely not for school readings, if you're not interested in the actual literature that book has no value in your life. I, personally, love reading books. But forcing that material to 12-18 and saying read these classic ones just pushes back youth from reading at all. You eit…

> morale / class diversification What does this mean, exactly? And why is it valuable? > You either move forward and adapt with the current generation or you try to force old generation habits and slowly curse on the result The classics are thousands of years old and have served as popular educational material for centuries. Why is Gen-Z categorically different from all of the generations that have come before such t…

I don't know which is Gen-Z but see my friends 5-6 year olds glued to their phones or tablets. They have the entire world of videos to watch at their finger tips. I'd argue they are in an entirely different situation than previous generations.

Even kids growing up in the 90s probably didn't have their own computer and the internet wasn't full of video entertainment and free games and kids growing up 2000-2010 didn't have phones and tablets.

80s kids had cable and VHS.

50-60-70s kids had TV

20-30-40s kids had radio

So personally I do think it's a big difference. I'm awestruck by what kids have access to today vs what I had access to growing up in the 70s, early 80s. Kids today can learn about any topic and anytime, anywhere. When I grew up if it wasn't in my family bookshelf or the library I didn't have access to it. Kids today can also watch almost all movies of the last 100 yrs on demand. When I grew up video wasn't a thing and cable didn't happen until I got to high school so all I had was the few channels on the TV and whatever they happened to be showing.

That difference has to mean something. Whether it means "classics" are still relevant or not I have no idea but reading of those arguably came from a time when content was scarce. It's not anymore.

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