Undoubtedly, the teaching of literature in the language class is one the important and useful tools to be used in order to develop critical thinking skills on students. However, it is essential that teachers have been trained to teach students how to use their minds and spirit. Also, the idea of teaching literature gives students the possibility to explore different meanings and interpretations. In that sense, if we have a teacher well trained in those areas and if he encourages students to get ideas from novels or poems we would take into account the idea of democratization of the English class. In fact, through interpretation there is no wrong answers, it is just what students think on a particular subject.
Having these issues in mind, I will analyze two examples from the classic British literature: one novel and one poem. They are Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley and the other one is a poem written by W.H. Auden under the name September 1. 1939.
If we go deep into Mary Shelley’s novel called “Frankenstein”, there are many themes that a teacher can work on in order to develop critical thinking skills on students. There are many ideas which can be used to explore new concepts, for instance the idea of “How people are educated”. There we have that the whole story is based on the premise that Frankenstein while he grew up he was totally alone. So, he started to raise hatred towards his entire family. Although, this story has been seen as a superficial one because when people hear about it, they may think that it is just about a monster and so on, there should be a teacher who can take this story and make it meaningful for students. That themes such as hate, anger or what happens with children who are left alone would be possible topics to be discussed. That the idea of “education as a rich source which humanize people”, would be a good theme to be analyzed, and those students can have their own interpretation of that.
In the process of teaching literature we can find that poems are good resources especially when you want to relate topics that students can reflect on. For instance, if a teacher gives them the next poem extract from September 1, 1939 by W. H. Auden:
“I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return[1]. ”
By giving this to students you can have a lot of discussion regarding to education. First of all, it is important that the teacher gives them background information. This is because students can focus their attention on the period of time the poem was written. They should also have visual aids with pictures from second world war and then discuss as part of the same event. Then the teacher should starts asking what do students think about it. This stanza is really impacting. It has to do a lot with the oppressive way of teaching. In this way, students are taught about ideologies which supposedly are true, and they can not criticize it because that is the way things are. The idea of someone who is taught that killing is part of their inner behaviour so that they have to be prepared in any case to destroy others, is simply sad. Sometimes schools have so much power to destroy a student life by teaching him/her this ideas. In a state of war even children are taught no to be helpful with others, and that means that people who passed through this kind of education are condemned to repeat the same history.
To sum up, what I liked to demonstrate through this essay is the importance that the teaching of literature has on students. What is more, they are not only taught about an author or a specific period of time, they are enriched with cultural information which is fundamental in order to understand how history has been built. At the same time, they can develop critical thinking skills which is the most important part of it because it is really needed that students and people start thinking by themselves and that they can build their own knowledge from their own self experience.
[1]W.H. Auden., September 1, 1939. Complete poem available at the following link: http://www.poemdujour.com/Sept1.1939.html
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