English Class

English class in my opinion is almost a waste of my time. English is said to be an unbiased course where as long as you can back up your opinion it doesn't matter what you write. I've found this to be false in all my years taking English courses. Maybe I don't back up my thesis right or maybe I just can't write worth...I shouldn't swear but you can tell what I wanted to say. Either way I don't know what I do wrong. My friends will say to tailor my writing towards the teacher, but why should I if this is an unbiased course? 'It's about the interpretation' They all say. Well mine is different from theirs does that mean I should change my entire depiction of the book, play or poem? Yes, apparently I am in order to get the grade. Going against my teacher's perspective wasn't difficult, in fact it seemed easier, but this particular teacher likes thesis'  to be approved before writing an essay. Meaning, I was back to square one as she would butcher my thesis slowly shaping it to her own idea and giving me proofs I had no hope of backing because I didn't believe the literature could be seen as thus. Another complaint I had was how we analyzed everything, write down to the details. It took the enjoyment out of reading. I liked to just sense what each scene meant, I analyzed a book, poem or plays main concept through feelings I got while reading. Each chapter would give me a new sense of how the book would turn out, how characters felt, how the author felt, it gave me everything but when it came to analyzing through words I couldn't do it. The words wouldn't flow out of my brain onto paper like some if my friends, it was just images and feelings things I couldn't possibly back up properly without writing about 16 pages and pulling proofs from all over the place.

Now I'll admit English class has it's uses. Without it most of the English speaking world would still confuse 'they're, there and their'. Oh who am I kidding, most people still do. But they are getting better, there is a smaller percentage now than thirty years ago of people with grammatical consistency and reasonable spelling. I realize that in these past two paragraphs alone I have probably made numerous grammatical and spelling mistakes but I never said I was had perfect English. I also realize that my less than amazing marks could have been from a lack of trying, poor grammar, terrible subtopics, bad thesis', pathetic proofs, or just plain bad form. These could have been factors or it could have been the fact that teachers seem to think and analyze the text too critically. Either way my marks have suffered because of it.

Though, aside from the weird, in depth analysis of the authors psyche, there are perks to English courses. They gave me plenty to read, some new authors and a couple of genres I would never have thought to read. Albert Camus has recently become a favourite author of mine along with poems by Edgar Allen Poe. I haven't been able to read many of his poems yet though. Old classics have also gained my attention recently which surprised me, as I thought they were less than enjoyable. Somewhere between getting bit by a German Shepard and swallowing thumbtacks. Now that pain scale has been moved to Haiku's, sure they're simple but not enjoyable to think up, especially to a non-creative brain like mine.

This will be the end of my rant on English Class and how it felt to be graded on my (wrong) interpretation of literature. I end this with a single fact backed up by scientific case studies. It was found that English teachers will favor the males in the class, raising the boys mark even if a girl did just as well. This is because English is placed in the arts category, teachers believe that boys will do naturally worse because they are used to running around and playing sports whereas girls are more likely to sit and patiently read a book. Thus the teachers will lower the standards when marking a boys essay and raise the expectations when marking a girls. Seems a bit unfair don't you think?