Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is killing us.

[Plucky]

Seriously. I love literature. I've never really liked analyzing it but did it anyway. My 9th grader is reading The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and it is torture for him. I read some and it is pretty rough going. Ds loves to read and has an appreciation for good lit and classics.

 

We are doing it for Lightning Literature American Early-Mid 19th Century. I am hoping this course gets better. We liked 7th and 8th grade LL.

 

It's hard for me to understand how a book so highly reviewed can be so awful to us.

[Plucky]

I've been thinking more about this. Maybe I should pull it from my son and sit down and read it for myself all the way through. Maybe then I'll see it. I'll have him move on to the next book and if I choose he can read it later this year or even next year. I really need to get back to reading everything I assign him as often as I can. I'm still open to opinions.

[cathmom]

It's awful! I couldn't make it all the way through and neither could my oldest dc, and we both love to read. Skip it!

[Plucky]

It's so nice to hear that we aren't alone. LOL Have you read the reviews of it? Lofty stuff and we aren't experiencing it. I am going to try to salvage something out of this. I will.

 

What do you use for high school lit?

[kate in seattle]

hmm, what is it that you aren't liking? my high school kids (co-op class) read this last year (i did too). we liked it. most of the kids had read lots of juvi biographies of franklin and it was fun reading the source material.

 

the students thought franklin was a little full of himself; we talked about his moral, but non-Christian worldview (and were amused by how working on one virtue at a time didn't seem to work). mostly we were impressed by how hard-working and inventive he was, so that he had more leisure time later on in life.

 

i don't remember anyone thinking it was a particularly dificult book, but maybe i am disremembering!

 

kate in seattle

[Michelle in MO]

the students thought franklin was a little full of himself; we talked about his moral, but non-Christian worldview (and were amused by how working on one virtue at a time didn't seem to work). mostly we were impressed by how hard-working and inventive he was, so that he had more leisure time later on in life.

 

I don't think it's a difficult book to read, and I agree with kate's sentiments above; Franklin's attempts at self-perfection are pretty funny.

 

I actually found parts of the book rather amusing; for instance, when he decided to become a vegetarian:

 

" . . . and on this Occasion, I consider'd with my Master Tryon, the taking every Fish as a king of unprovok'd Murder, since none of them had or ever could do us any Injury that might justify the Slaughter . . . But I had formerly been a great Lover of Fish, and when this came hot out of the Frying Pan, it smelt admirably well. I balanc'd some time between Principle and Inclination: till I recollected, that when the Fish were opened, I saw smaller Fish taken out of their Stomachs: Then, thought I, if you eat one another, I don't see why we mayn't eat you."

 

Another instance I found amusing was when he and a friend named Keimer decided to start a new sect:

 

"However it gave him so high an Opinion of my Abilities in the Confuting Way, that he seriously propos'd my being his Colleague in a Project he had of setting up a new Sect. He was to preach the Doctrines, and I was to confound all Opponents."

 

I found little tidbits like this quite amusing! His manner of writing seems very appropriate for the time period: exceedingly long sentences, most/all of the nouns (and some adjectives) capitalized, etc. Overall, I found the work pretty humorous, but Franklin is rather full of himself.

[periwinkle]

Ds loves to read and has an appreciation for good lit and classics.

 

 

 

This is true of my oldest ds as well. He read the BF autobiography in 9th grade, and it didn't appeal to him either (I'm not sure if it was tortuous, but he rilly, rilly didn't like it.:tongue_smilie:)

 

I hope the rest of the course picks up for your ds. I like LL, too, but I haven't used that particular one.

[Cindy in WA]

She is an avid reader and considers this to be the worst book she's ever read. It's fun to watch her face when she talks about it!

Cindy

[Deidre in GA]

Ds 15 did that LL course last year. the Franklin book was fine for him after he got over the fact that the literary style of Franklin's time does not lend itself to being a quick read. he had to slow down his usual reading pace considerably. the journey was worth it; it helps that Franklin has long been a favorite historical figure.

 

we enjoyed that course. when my son has trouble slowing down his reading pace, i have him read the book out loud to me. we didn't do that with Franklin but did with The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick.

[Myra]

We're doing LL - early Amer, too, this semester. I tried to read Franklin's book over the summer - and it took me the entire summer because I just couldn't get into it at all. My son heard me moan about the book, but to my surprise he just sat down, did the reading, and no complaints at all! Last weekend we went into Boston to do the Freedom Trail and when we got to Ben's statue you should have heard my son go on and on about how "cool" Ben was! Ha! Go figure!

 

Myra

[Big Buckin' Longhorn]

We hated it and skipped it.

 

I know, probably not the most grown-up thing to do, but I am not a glutton for punishment. There is plenty of other great literature in the course, and I just didn't feel it was a hill worth dying on. Also, it's the fist book in the course, I didn't want either of us to get a bad taste in our mouths and ditch the whole thing before we actually had a chance to enjoy it.

 

If it hurts that bad, let it go.

[Heather in VA]

We are doing that course as well. The Franklin book wasn't hard for us but it wasn't a favorite for her. For some reason she's never been a fan of Ben. We did enjoy discussing Ben's outlook on life.

 

Muddle through. It won't be the last book that isn't a favorite. Sometimes when you get to the other side you are surprised to look back and see you really did get something out of it.

 

Heather

[Plucky]

I think reading some other biographies to start with on BF is an excellent idea. This is a little dry and stilted for us, and not a good start to high school lit. I want him to benefit from reading it and I know that some books will be hard to get through. It is slow and long in some places and makes one want to put it down but this level of literature is new to us and I think I'd like something less hard to struggle through. We will come back to it but right now it's really not inspiring us like it should. I want my ds to love the classics and good literature and for the most part he does. I know there are things in life we just have to do but since I'm the teacher and my goal is to instill a love or at least an appreciation for lit I'm going to pull the book for now.

 

I think after I've read it myself I'll have a better grasp on how best to present it to him. :)

 

Thanks everyone for your opinions. It does help.

[Janie]

We breezed right through it with the audio version. Enjoyed it a lot. And got a lot out of it.

Edited October 5, 2008 by Janie
correct typo

[Karen in CO]

I enjoyed it and thought it funny, but it is his least favorite book out of all high school lit. We did buddy reading to let him get through it. I still don't understand what he had against it. Read it yourself or even better, read it together. Maybe just figure out how much is required to get through the assignment. It might be a good time to introduce reading strategies.

[Storm Bay]

Personally, I didn't find it onerous at all, but I think it could also be a matter of taste. This is the same one that's in the Harvard Classics, right? Others love Don Quixote and I'm slugging through it because I'm determined to get through SWB's literature list. Actually, there are books on it I've read before, but I'll reread them.

[djkapp]

We actually used this as a read-aloud a couple of years ago when my five were in grades 4 - 9. Some sections were a little dry, but I found that being able to stop, discuss, answer questions, check for understanding, etc. made the book quite interesting and enjoyable. While it definitely would not make the list of top 10 read-alouds, my children learned a great deal.

 

Yvonne

[Michelle in MO]

I can't remember who mentioned this, but could it be that the style of Franklin's writing is difficult for your kids? I can definitely understand that his particular style of writing would be challenging for many kids. What was considered good grammar (i.e., the very long sentences) many years ago would be a big no-no today.

 

Just anecdotal, but I remember approximately 5-8 years ago there was a renewed interest in Ernest Shackleton's expedition to the Antarctic. I read several books on the subject, but when I tried to read Shackleton's own story, South: A Memoir of the Endurance Voyage, I just couldn't get through it. It was written in very precise nautical terms (repeatedly!) which I was only somewhat familiar with. Probably a fascinating read to a seaman, but not to this landlubber! Plus, again, the style of English in the early part of the 20th century (c. 1920s) was quite a bit different from even forty years later!

 

I like Janie's idea of listening to the book on CD; perhaps that might better engage your children.

 

And, if they simply do not like it, no matter how you present it, feel perfectly free to skip it. They may come back around to it later on, which often happens with kids---and even with us adults! :D

[danielle]

I do think it's important to mush on through books whose style is difficult. I personally love Franklin and think his style is delightful (loved Boswell's Life of Johnson, too). But every lit test I look at (AP & SAT II) always has analysis of difficult texts included--my personal dislikes being Pope and Dryden.

 

While I think being enthusiastic about a work can make the dc eager to read it, my dd has also really liked some works I hated (The Pilgrim's Progress) and intensely disliked at least one of my lifetime favorite works (The Tempest). Although I generally try to select my best guess as to what she'll like, I don't let her out of things just because she doesn't like them--sometimes it's an important experience to 1) study things you don't like and try to see why they're considered classics and 2)just plain stick to tough work. College profs don't let you out of the reading list because you don't like it. Sure you can avoid it, but you're not costing the prof anything and you are missing out on a lot, at that point.

 

Franklin's ideas are so central to U.S. thought, and such a model of a certain slant of thinking that continues to today, that I just would not skip it.

 

JMTC

Danielle

[Plucky]

I showed this thread to my son. He felt I was being melodramatic and would rather finish the book. He only has 80 pages left and will finish this week. So there you have it! He'll finish the book. He feels it's important enough to complete. Thanks, everyone!

[Jackie in AR]

My boys recently finished that book, and they complained all the way through it. I encouraged them to continue to the end and consider it a character-builder. :D

 

ETA: They were reading it as one of the literature assignments in CW - Diogenes.

[Michelle in MO]

said, I feel like I should revise my earlier opinion.

 

Yes, for many students reading earlier periods of literature is difficult, but working it through is what is "character building" and also helps your children's reading skills tremendously. We did not read The Autobiography of Ben Franklin as a family; I read it on my own, just recently, which is why I posted that perhaps it's not really necessary. We did Omnibus I and II, but this year our girls are in traditional school.

 

After reading Danielle's comments, I would agree that it is necessary. Andrew Pudewa uses excerpts from Franklin's autobiography to teach writing. If necessary, try reading it aloud as a family, taking turns as you're reading it aloud. Some works make more sense to kids (and adults) when read aloud rather than trying to muddle through it on your own.

 

Reading Shakespeare is difficult, but provides great benefits later on. And, I think it was also Danielle that said that sometimes our kids like works of literature that we don't, and vice versa.

 

Also to be noted is the great benefit your children will derive from reading more difficult works of literature. Your children will have so much more of a head start on college-entrance exams through studying difficult works of literature than through studying easy literature with simple plots and sentence structures. I've seen this benefit with my oldest, who reads very well. If your child wants to go on for further degrees, such as a master's degree, they will also need to be top-notch readers. I took the GRE in March, and believe me, the reading selections were tough. Being prepared ahead of time really helped.

 

So---bypass some of what I said in my second post on this thread! I've read Franklin's autobiography, and although I can see why h.s. kids would find it somewhat challenging, I would try to point out some of the very humorous aspects in his life's story.

 

HTH.

[hswarden]

This is so funny! I love that book!

[Lux Et Veritas Academy]

Ok odd man out- but that is one of my all time favorite books. Infact, when we went to Philly last year for an American History trip- I was so happy that I had read it. It was like Ben and I were best friends, I couldn't stop talking about it. Try the audio book- .....just to shake things up! Perhaps being where he lived made it more interesting. I am not sure- but I love his wisdom!

[cathmom]

I *grew up* near where he lived and have been to Franklin Place numerous times. I like the guy fine. Still hated the book, still chose to not finish it. I have enough character, thank you very much. Life is too short to read books you hate!