Frazz by Jef Mallett for August 07, 2020

By the time I was Caulfield’s age I was reading… a lot… for pleasure. And a little for school. We were encouraged to turn in a list of titles we’d read over the summer. One year, the new teacher in 5th and 6th grade gave me an F for claiming so many that I couldn’t possibly have read. My mother sure set HIM straight!

Only one thing has ever managed to dampen my love of reading, awful assigned reading

Before the internet, it was easy to make up book titles and give a book report on any subject that you could talk about for a few minutes.

That strategy doesn’t work for all kids

Our local library had a summer reading program when I was a kid—20 books to win a party at the end of summer—I usually filled in two sheets

We had to read three books over the summer. They assigned four, and you had to read three, so there was a choice. 7th Grade, The Yearling, Captains Courageous, Swiss Family Robinson, and The Babe Ruth Story (Brother Louis was a baseball nut). I did read The Babe Ruth Story and The Yearling. The other two I started, but just couldn’t abide.

Olsen and Holden seem to enjoy this long term chess match with each other.

I don’t remember any summer reading lists or assigned books. Maybe when teachers found out my family went to the library each Saturday…

I’m guessing all the other kids received summer reading lists.

I think it was in middle school we were assigned to pick our own book and write a report. I choose Jurassic Park, the novel had just come out (the movie was a few years later based on this book). When the assignments came back, I was not handed back my report. I was given a small piece of paper with the words with something like “don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble, but see me after class”. Though I am a worrier so I worried about it all class.

Turns out my English teacher was planning to read that book for fun himself, and didn’t want to grade my paper until afterwards, because he didn’t want me to ruin the story for him.

Though that made me worry more because he was going to read the book and while it is fresh in his mind, grade my paper. I think I did well on it, but it was so long ago I am not sure

Never received a summer reading list all my years in school. When I had a daughter, I called the local library to get a reading list….they never heard of one! She became a reader anyway from the books I bought her….

Assigned reading has become a minefield. At Duke U. there is an assigned book for incoming freshmen every year. And every year there are angry protests over the choice. At all pre-college levels, parents will protest pretty much any assigned reading, on the grounds it violates their beliefs and prejudices. Do a search on "list of banned books in the US’ and be amazed and saddened. Pretty much anything that would cause deep thought and informed discussion has at one time or another been on the list. The upside is that getting banned is a great way to stimulate sales of a book.

I love Mrs. Olsen!

I recall when I was in junior high (what they now call middle school) and we were supposed to keep a record of all the books we’d read during the school year. Some gal got an award for having read 50 versions of Dick & Jane, and I always felt sad that I’d only been able to get thru War and Peace, The Collected Plays of William Shakespeare, and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

One thing I really like about this strip is the interplay between Mrs. Olsen and Caulfield. Mallett often does a nice job of representing the interplay between intelligence and intelligence + experience.

I had both flavors of teacher — ones who knew I read outside the expected guidelines for the grade level and, at worst, decided to not discourage me, and a “reading” teacher who decided to “encourage (me) to broaden my horizons” outside my love for science fiction by ridiculing said science fiction (C’mon — Asimov? Clarke? Heinlein? Not exactly pulp monster stuff … ) Years later, when I was well into adulthood, I ran into the latter teacher who demanded I acknowledge she was the best teacher I ever had. I smiled …

In the arc at least it’s still Olsen 1: Caulfield 0 [but even if he figured it out, he’d laugh]

Lots of people have mentioned reading lists. I didn’t use one, and my students chose what they liked from our small rural school library or brought in books from elsewhere. Unfortunately, many did not bother to read thoughtfully. They also did pay attention to my report quide lines which required the correctly spelled title, the author’s name, and the opposing characters or general theme, which they could get directly from the book. We’re not talking heavy stuff, just average science fiction, mysteries, occasional rites of passage, westerns, spy fiction, etc. It was as if neither the books nor the grades mattered. As an avid reader myself for over 25 years at that time, I was flummoxed [and I still am over 50 years later] that I was never able to fix on one central cause for this indifference. Which makes the memory of the very rare Caulfields a truly good one.

Told you for years that the education goes both ways.

When I was in the 5th my favorite teacher saw I was sleepy in class and said I needed to stop watching TV so late. I said, “But Sir we do not have a TV, I am reading until late every night.” He checked with my mother to verify the story.