Asking why, re: NCLB & literature emphasis

When I was in California, teaching fourth grade, I remember having to teach the children how to write a literature review, in case the state should happen to test that assignment in that particular year. Of course teaching to the test was the only instruction that was acceptable under their interpretation of No Child Left Behind.

I thought, how many times have I actually had to deal with literary elements in my past?

I think that I needed to know the literary elements for when I took acting classes, for understanding characterization, and dramatic intent. That was a couple times in the early 1970s. Certainly I never needed to write a literary review. I think that such is the realm of literature classes in the English department.

I believe that the next time I dealt with literary elements was in a Screenwriting class I took while I was in film school in Michigan. Understanding the literary elements and being able to communicate about them in screenplays, which we were either writing or analyzing, was extremely helpful.

Then I considered, how often would your average college student have to deal with the literary elements? I figured that I was about average. English majors would be on the high side. Engineers would be on the low side, and coming from a family of engineers, I believe the need to understand the literary elements is not highly valued, though I am sure there are exceptions.

So then I ask, why the hell are we wasting time teaching the 9 year olds how to write a literary review, using literary elements? Am I the only person asking if this is a valid standard?

When they need to know, they will figure it out.

There is another installment coming about teaching reading using only fiction for instruction.