Cultural Literacy
Why study the classics?
Cultural Literacy- the bank of knowledge, decided on by a culture, that is used as the measurement of how in tune a person is with the happenings around him/her. Some consider this bank of knowledge to determine how educated, and aware a person truly is.
Did you catch it? In the last video clip, when the speaker referred to Ben Franklin, Nick Caraway, and Jay Gatsby. How many of those people do you know? You probably know about Ben Franklin, but the speaker also assumed that you knew about Ben Franklin as he was when he first immigrated here. Do you? Our culture does this a lot, assume that people have read classic works of literature, and don't bother to explain to you if you missed it. Think about how many times you have heard reference to "Romo & Juliet" (Romo, Oh Romo), "Hamlet" (To be or not to be...). We will be reading about Ben Franklin, Nick Caraway (from Great Gatsby), and Jay Gatsby (also from Gatsby) so you won't be in the dark too much longer :)
Did you catch it? In the last video clip, when the speaker referred to Ben Franklin, Nick Caraway, and Jay Gatsby. How many of those people do you know? You probably know about Ben Franklin, but the speaker also assumed that you knew about Ben Franklin as he was when he first immigrated here. Do you? Our culture does this a lot, assume that people have read classic works of literature, and don't bother to explain to you if you missed it. Think about how many times you have heard reference to "Romo & Juliet" (Romo, Oh Romo), "Hamlet" (To be or not to be...). We will be reading about Ben Franklin, Nick Caraway (from Great Gatsby), and Jay Gatsby (also from Gatsby) so you won't be in the dark too much longer :)