Pinned
Annie Abrams
@annieabrams.bsky.social
· May 28
This Year, We All Realized That Kids Aren’t Reading Books in School. Only the Right Is Offering a Solution.
Common Core and the College Board are my enemies. But the classical education movement is not my friend.
slate.com
Gift link to my argument in favor of teaching works of "serious literary value" in public schools: slate.com/life/2025/05...
Shelley
You can only pick one. I’m sorry.
Jane Austen or Mary Shelley
Jane Austen or Mary Shelley
November 11, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Shelley
I don't know how to get people to read this article, but I really think many more should.
November 11, 2025 at 1:53 AM
I don't know how to get people to read this article, but I really think many more should.
am still thinking about it
currently thinking about-- www.nybooks.com/articles/202...
Suddenly, Jamaica | Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Jamaica Kincaid’s commanding, irreverent work immerses her readers in a black world without explaining or defining its blackness. This seems to be a major departure in the history of African American ...
www.nybooks.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:33 AM
am still thinking about it
Reposted by Annie Abrams
He couldn't understand why his teacher, known for the big library she'd amassed over so many years, had to sneak around to read.
"She just told us 'if we get caught, I’m going to get in trouble.’”
"She just told us 'if we get caught, I’m going to get in trouble.’”
November 11, 2025 at 1:15 AM
He couldn't understand why his teacher, known for the big library she'd amassed over so many years, had to sneak around to read.
"She just told us 'if we get caught, I’m going to get in trouble.’”
"She just told us 'if we get caught, I’m going to get in trouble.’”
Reposted by Annie Abrams
You know what has brought my kid alive as a reader this year? His teacher introduced POETRY. "Mom! Dad! Have you guys even heard of ROBERT FROST?"
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
You know what has brought my kid alive as a reader this year? His teacher introduced POETRY. "Mom! Dad! Have you guys even heard of ROBERT FROST?"
Reposted by Annie Abrams
books don’t require subscriptions and licenses
November 11, 2025 at 1:08 AM
books don’t require subscriptions and licenses
Reposted by Annie Abrams
When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.
November 10, 2025 at 11:35 PM
When students get to college they generally don’t know what college is and that’s an incredible pedagogical opportunity. My freshman comp class did Morrison, Pope, Dickinson, Shakespeare, and Johnny Cash all swirled together in a frenzy of discovery. Education is what we make it.
"Books — actual books, with dust jackets, spines...are increasingly unwelcome...With few exceptions, the only stories allowed in the early grades of state-appointed HISD Superintendent Mike Miles' New Education System are minced into dry text that teachers read from manuals."
November 10, 2025 at 10:14 PM
"Books — actual books, with dust jackets, spines...are increasingly unwelcome...With few exceptions, the only stories allowed in the early grades of state-appointed HISD Superintendent Mike Miles' New Education System are minced into dry text that teachers read from manuals."
i used to think that bros lying about what they’ve read to sound smart were The Worst
there are worse things
there are worse things
November 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM
i used to think that bros lying about what they’ve read to sound smart were The Worst
there are worse things
there are worse things
conceding that books are powerful is good
of course musk hasn’t done the reading, neither have a lot of the classical ed leaders, but it’s better than not for them to feel like they should have
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM
conceding that books are powerful is good
of course musk hasn’t done the reading, neither have a lot of the classical ed leaders, but it’s better than not for them to feel like they should have
November 10, 2025 at 8:15 PM
of course musk hasn’t done the reading, neither have a lot of the classical ed leaders, but it’s better than not for them to feel like they should have
Reposted by Annie Abrams
I picked up both Frankenstein and The Haunting of Hill House, because I was tired of hearing I should read “real literature,” instead of nothing but then contemporary horror. It was definitely a “Fine! Look! I’ll try some ‘real books’ so you’ll leave me alone.” They changed how I understood books
I confess - I did this in my 20s with The Autobiography of Malcom X (as told to Alex Haley). I would read it on the train, very proud of myself. The fringe benefit of my arrogance was exposure to a brilliant book and person, and a lesson in how school textbooks lie.
People are being accused of "reading performatively", that is reading in public as a way of showing off or 'looking cool'?
That sounds like an accusation made by people who don't read.
That sounds like an accusation made by people who don't read.
November 10, 2025 at 7:55 PM
I picked up both Frankenstein and The Haunting of Hill House, because I was tired of hearing I should read “real literature,” instead of nothing but then contemporary horror. It was definitely a “Fine! Look! I’ll try some ‘real books’ so you’ll leave me alone.” They changed how I understood books
sorry but this is actually good news
November 10, 2025 at 8:01 PM
sorry but this is actually good news
a cynic might suggest that ai tutors are the way of the future
Why are good teachers leaving teaching?
We became teachers because we love kids, and we care deeply about their ability to learn and grow.
We can’t be complicit in a system that wields us a weapons to harm our most vulnerable students.
We won’t help them hurt kids. We will find another way.
We became teachers because we love kids, and we care deeply about their ability to learn and grow.
We can’t be complicit in a system that wields us a weapons to harm our most vulnerable students.
We won’t help them hurt kids. We will find another way.
November 10, 2025 at 7:16 PM
a cynic might suggest that ai tutors are the way of the future
Reposted by Annie Abrams
“end of the english major”
do the highest reaches of literary studies know about this, for instance www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
Falkenberg: Mike Miles takes story books from HISD kindergarteners
First HISD took the libraries. Now teachers say the district’s curriculum leaves no room for storybooks and some are secretly reading to students anyway.
www.houstonchronicle.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
“end of the english major”
Reposted by Annie Abrams
“When Rose's teacher gave the word, the children were trained to stop reading and place their books inside their desks. They'd grab pencils and pretend to be engrossed in a packet of test prep.”
November 10, 2025 at 4:57 PM
“When Rose's teacher gave the word, the children were trained to stop reading and place their books inside their desks. They'd grab pencils and pretend to be engrossed in a packet of test prep.”
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Deliberate deliteracy.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
do the highest reaches of literary studies know about this, for instance www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
Falkenberg: Mike Miles takes story books from HISD kindergarteners
First HISD took the libraries. Now teachers say the district’s curriculum leaves no room for storybooks and some are secretly reading to students anyway.
www.houstonchronicle.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Deliberate deliteracy.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
Reposted by Annie Abrams
"The third graders kept a stack of worksheets tucked underneath their chapter books at all times as they took turns reading aloud with their teacher. At any moment, they knew, their teacher might get an urgent text that district officials were on campus."
Deliberate deliteracy.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
This is not a fire drill, unless you mean that in the “Fahrenheit 451” sense. In which case, you’re right, that’s precisely what it is.
do the highest reaches of literary studies know about this, for instance www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
November 10, 2025 at 5:45 PM
"The third graders kept a stack of worksheets tucked underneath their chapter books at all times as they took turns reading aloud with their teacher. At any moment, they knew, their teacher might get an urgent text that district officials were on campus."
yes
You will definitely not find me defending RTTT, and it's important, I think, to situate it in 40 years of bipartisan Ed policy laser focused on the overwrought predictions of Nation at Risk.
November 10, 2025 at 5:44 PM
yes
Obama’s ed policy
It's absolutely wild how so many people in charge think that the point is the tests. Like, how did the measuring tape get to be in charge?
November 10, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Obama’s ed policy
Reposted by Annie Abrams
David Coleman's legacy.
“When Rose's teacher gave the word, the children were trained to stop reading and place their books inside their desks. They'd grab pencils and pretend to be engrossed in a packet of test prep.”
November 10, 2025 at 5:02 PM
David Coleman's legacy.
“end of the english major”
do the highest reaches of literary studies know about this, for instance www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston...
Falkenberg: Mike Miles takes story books from HISD kindergarteners
First HISD took the libraries. Now teachers say the district’s curriculum leaves no room for storybooks and some are secretly reading to students anyway.
www.houstonchronicle.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:52 PM
“end of the english major”
there are a lot of people with loud voices who are pretty insulated
seems to me that those democrats inclined not to fight perceive themselves as living through a somewhat ordinary cycle of presidential overreach and backlash and not something much more significant and dangerous
November 10, 2025 at 4:47 PM
there are a lot of people with loud voices who are pretty insulated
it’s weird to love a politician
November 10, 2025 at 3:56 PM
it’s weird to love a politician
if you think we should teach books in schools and that which books we teach ought to be contestable, the only way to realize that vision is to contest the books we think are worth teaching in schools, in public, with serious arguments
November 9, 2025 at 1:21 AM
if you think we should teach books in schools and that which books we teach ought to be contestable, the only way to realize that vision is to contest the books we think are worth teaching in schools, in public, with serious arguments