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Originally Posted by davem
I wonder if the situation is changing though? Will the popularity of Harry Potter, HDM (for all Pullman's statements about 'using fantasy to undermine fantasy'), & LotR (movies as well as books) finally put a stop to teacher's like Mr Eddy, or is this attitude of 'write about grown-up things', or 'only write about what you know' going to persist?
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Doubtful - but I'm a cynic as well as a skeptic.
Surely there may be a fad where children are permitted to write fantasy for a time, but methinks that it won't last long and we'll have teachers constraining their pupils to write more of what they (the teachers) think is important. One personal theory is that if a student is writing 'gritty' instead of 'fairy,' this boosts the teacher's ego, as having one's students writing fantasy (and science fiction for that matter) looks...dare I say..childish.
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Shouldn't teachers be encouraging children to use their imagination to the full?
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Are you serious? Thought that the whole idea of teachers (generally) was to help the students conform. I was just speaking about all of the interesting words that my children use (i.e. thismorrow, bednight) that will be expunged by education. I'm not a teacher, and so I don't know how it all plays out on the job, but have hoped to encourage imagination in my own students. It's messy and time-consuming, and even I fall short
, and so think that this is another reason why students are herded into more understandable standardized efficiently-scored writing.
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Can't help wondering how many other potential JK's have been lost along the way through following teacher's 'advice'. Would we have had the Legendarium if Tolkien had had a teacher like Mr Eddy?
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And yet...Was there a teacher in your (not just
davem's) past that you feel encouraged or discouraged you in regards to fantasy?