Ramblings on Librarianship, Technology, and Academia

Oh, yeah, and in reference to children's literature classes being easy -- this seemed to me to miss the point. Yes, most children's books are easier to read than a lot of adult literature. But I'm not convinced they're easier to satisfactorily analyze, and at least in children's lit classes I've taught, greater quantity makes up for that difference in reading difficulty, so that just as much out-of-class time is spent on the reading as in other literature classes. Or more, if my students are to be believed. I also assign a lot of critical articles and textbook readings, which are sometimes quite dense. I'm not a particularly hard grader but I do demand real thinking and critical analysis from my students. Some of them find it harder to think this way about children's books than about adult literature. I make them.

Students who take my children's lit classes primarily hoping they will be easy, are generally disappointed. Students who take it primarily hoping it will be fun, are generally not.