Unfiltered Story #234205

In 6th grade we had two separate classes, English and Reading. While the sound like they should be the same thing, they weren’t. English was where we read books like a regular English class. In Reading, we read short stories and the kinds of things that show up on standardized tests and practiced comprehension questions and the little mini-essays the tests had on them (BCR, anyone?).

We had just finished a book most of the class loved in English and after lots of tests in Reading we were pretty sick of reading just about anything. So of course that’s when they decide to hand us copies of The Fellowship of the Ring.

I’m not bashing Lord of the Rings but we were all hating it. It was just a touch too hard for us and we were burnt out. We were a G&T class and we were not used to struggling to read anything ever and it got overwhelming fast. Most of the class was behind in the reading schedule and those who weren’t were not understanding what they read without class discussion…But there wasn’t much discussion happening when 2/3 of the class had to spend most of the period trying to covertly read under their desks to catch up.

In the end, we managed to convince the teacher that we were loving the book so much that we wished to read and enjoy it at our own pace. At the time we thought we pulled one over on the teacher, because a few days later they collected all the copies and gave us something else to read. Looking back I’m hoping that the teacher just didn’t want to fight us on it because if she legit believed us I worry what other things students got away with over the years…