# Teaching > General Teaching >  Problem w/ English Teacher

## bubbaroo

In my English class, we are reading Great Expectations, which is all and good, except for the fact that the teacher found not only an abridged version, but the world's worst abridged version. I think that this is not only an insult to me, but to such a great book (the book has almost 60 chapters, which has been shortend to almost 40 chapters).Also in this text book is an abridged version of Call of the Wild and Romeo and Juliet (I see many more abridged books in the future). Does anybody have any ideas how to get her to stop?

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## RobinHood3000

Yeeesh. Sounds bad.

Try showing her a collection of what I call the "Great Illustrated Bastardizations," so she can see what abridging does to a work.

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## Xamonas Chegwe

I'm not sure at what level you are studying bub, or in what country, but I would lodge a complaint with the head of department or headmaster (or equivalent) if you feel that strongly. It's what I would have done. If that does no good, try appealing to the board of governors or the local education authority. Take it all the way to your government's education department if need be. If nothing else, this will provide an enlightening insight into the workings of bureaucracy, but you never know, someone may listen.

Personally, I think your teacher sounds lazy.

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## Scheherazade

It would depend at what level you are studying but surely it is not up to one individual teacher to decide which copy you should read; they have to follow a set curriculum usually. Also, even those are only 'recommendations'; if you go out and buy your own copy, I don't think your teacher will object to it. However, it is interesting that you are recommended an abridged version. Please keep us posted when you talk to your teacher!

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## Virgil

Hey this reminded me of a funny web site of ultra-abridged classics. It's very funny and the kind of thing Lit Net folks would greatly enjoy. It's reducing a classic work down to a sentence or two. Here's the web site:


http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml

For instance, here's Moby Dick, by Herman Melville:




> Ishmael
> Call me Ishmael. 
> Captain Ahab
> Crew, we will seek the white whale and kill it, because I am insane. 
> Crew
> Alas, your destructive obsession will be our undoing. 
> (They almost find the white whale. Then they almost find the white whale. Then they find it.)
> Captain Ahab
> I stab at thee. I stab at thee. 
> ...

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## Virgil

> In my English class, we are reading Great Expectations, which is all and good, except for the fact that the teacher found not only an abridged version, but the world's worst abridged version. I think that this is not only an insult to me, but to such a great book (the book has almost 60 chapters, which has been shortend to almost 40 chapters).Also in this text book is an abridged version of Call of the Wild and Romeo and Juliet (I see many more abridged books in the future). Does anybody have any ideas how to get her to stop?


Bub - Like the others have said, a lot depends on what grade you're in. If this is at a college level, I would say that this is a travasty. Romeo and Juilet abridged? Good Lord.

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## Blackspynx

ghsgh

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## SilverMoon

I totally agree with Xamonas Chegwe, take this complaint to the highest level, but what I would do is to go out and buy the unabridged copy, then try and read it at the same pace as you are at school, just a chapter ahead, then make sure you point out every single little mistake you come across, particulaly those regarding dialect and language, and make sure you have the book to hand to prove it. Your teacher will regret the time she thought she would be able to muck up one of the gretest literary works of all time...

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## Whifflingpin

Does it not depend on the abridgement? Moby Dick might lose something if reduced to a paragraph, but, as a piece of literature, does it need that long discourse on the biology of whales?

I remember reading Scott's "Waverley" a generation or so ago - having waded, Lord knows why, through six (?) turgid chapters I came to a footnote, by the author, saying that many people had told him that the first chapters were unnecessary, and that he agreed with them, but he didn't want to change the book after it had been published. If I had not been in masochistic mode at the time, I'd never have read any more Scott.

.

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## Petrarch's Love

Let me just say I can sympathize. My senior year of highschool I had a very similar teacher who was supposedly teaching us AP (advanced placement) English. We went through everything abridged and "translated" into current colloquial english--Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, etc. When he asked us to select our own book to do a project on and I chose _Sense and Sensibility_ he said he couldn't possibly read the book and graded my entire paper based on a three sentence synopsis of the book which he looked up in a big volume of plot summaries for famous books which he always kept in his desk. Complaints fell on deaf ears in my case, but I wish you the best of luck in protesting this. By all means, go ahead and read the books in their entirety and just keep in mind how lucky you are to be able to enjoy books to their fullest in a way your teacher evidently cannot.

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## jessezzel

Yeah I'm a senior in AP right now, yeah you have to deal with alot of translations like Beowulf and Chaucer becuase its old and middle english. But the whole AP system is starting to get way wacked out in my opinion.

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## imaditzyreader

DUH!, the whole point of taking an AP class is to Ace the test, and if it means justgetting the bare bones of everything, who cares. At least you are getting enough of the story to take the test on...right??

lol, jk. But I really think that a lot of AP teachers think this.

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## jon1jt

This is a classic example of wretched teachers destroying the education system. I agree with the above posts that say abridged versions are the absolute worst. I say ban them all as it plays right into our sound bite-driven world. What this episode also brings to my mind is how most of us pay for it, intellectually and financially, and how it ultimately keeps our decrepit system afloat. "Give me more abridged versions Mr. Professor, sir!" Oh my!

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## jessezzel

> DUH!, the whole point of taking an AP class is to Ace the test, and if it means justgetting the bare bones of everything, who cares. At least you are getting enough of the story to take the test on...right??
> 
> lol, jk. But I really think that a lot of AP teachers think this.


This is very true. In my AP class my teacher cut 1984 out of the reading lis, because i guess it doesnt show up on the test enough. So I read it out side of class. I guess that is about all you can do, is just find the good stuff outside of class instead of depending on your teacher.

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## Charles Darnay

It's true, you most certainly cannot depend on an English class (especially high school English) to discover good literature (except Shakepspeare - but even then it is usually butchered). With texts such as Beawolf or Canterbury Tales - there is nothing wrong with translated versions (learning middle English is simply taking it a step further). There are several good versions of these two texts in modern English, there are also probably hundreds of terrible ones - you just have to look around. I love my copy of Canterbury Tales!

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## bluevictim

I'd try to help, but I'm busy drafting my letter of complaint about how my AP calculus class didn't cover the implicit function theorem.

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## daddysfiddler

I agree that it is not right to give students bad abridged versions of books. However coming from a school where we only have 12 weeks per class abridged versions are necessary. Teachers are required to cover certain books and other subjects in their classes no matter how long or short the class is. Before you take these complaints to a higher authority you might want to find out what the teacher is required to teach. Nobody ever said that you couldn't read the book on your own. If you have the time to read the original version then more power to you. <><

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## sassypengeduin

I'm trying to understand why so many books are abridged. I posted this question elsewhere but didn't really get any help. The reason I'm asking is because I was hoping to read Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book and bought a version from Scholastic to later find out it was abridged. I found the original and have read both, and was shocked at how different they were, but I"m not sure i understand the reasoning behind editing so much out. Can anyone tell me why? I'm studying to become a teacher and I want to be able to explain some day to my students why I would prefer them to read the full length.

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## Shannanigan

I don't think I ever encountered abridged works in high school or college, but then again, I have not read a great number of books that I know high school graduates are usually expected to have read.

Virgil, I went to that website (http://www.rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml) and t is hilarious....but like I said, a lot I haven't read. I think I may turn that website into a reading list for me, lol. I almost wish we had done at least a couple abridged books just because, like daddysfiddler pointed out, there just is not enough time in a school year to cover eveything that is expected comprehensively...

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## amanda_isabel

> I totally agree with Xamonas Chegwe, take this complaint to the highest level, but what I would do is to go out and buy the unabridged copy, then try and read it at the same pace as you are at school, just a chapter ahead, then make sure you point out every single little mistake you come across, particulaly those regarding dialect and language, and make sure you have the book to hand to prove it. Your teacher will regret the time she thought she would be able to muck up one of the gretest literary works of all time...


i agree with your suggestion, silvermoon. or, read it thoroughly (if you can find the time), noting down errors and the discrepancies of the abridged version, then talk to your teacher. if that doesn't work then take XC's advice.

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## Pensive

Oh, the very same thing happens to me. Every year, in my school an abridged version is taught which really sucks. I never gets into the novels until I read the actual or unabridged version. I think that an abridged version really spoils the loveliness of a novel and there is no use of such a version for literature class.

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## kao218

now i would like to start of first by saying that i too despise abridged versions--especially as a teacher i find them difficult to teach as often times they are poorly done and very choppy. however, to assume that any teacher is horrible because he/she is using them is unjust. the reality is that many teachers despise using these versions but their hands are tied. at my high school, our department head invested in expensive anthologies for all levels and grades.these anthologies are awful, in my opinion, and only include snippets and abridged works. these anthologies ate up our budget and we have no money to purchase novels of whole works for the students. now being paid what i am i cannot afford to buy 100 copies of each novel i would like to teach and photocopying novels is out the questions so i am left teaching abridged versions and doing the best i can with it. the real issue for me is funding.

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## Logos

That's unfortunate kao. I bet that is similar to how many teachers have to cope, that they don't have final say or control of what they teach, or what goes on in their own classrooms. Too much administrative/bureaucratic nonsense going on. 

Welcome to LitNet  :Smile:

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