Yeah, but the main story was about a recitation contest, performing
well known poems aloud. Reading the article & Goia's comments, I can
see why Barry thinks there's some 'reactionary propaganda' behind all
this; i agree, yet i cant find the whole project all that bad for the
students. It's the pushing of the concept that only trad formal poetry
(verse) is really good that's the problem, altho for memorization
obviously it helps, or is easier.
What really turned me off (altho that article on the study is grand
comedy) was Goia's tonal reading of one poem; surely as awful as any
teaching of content only.
Doug
On 7-May-08, at 12:38 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> I'm still having problems, Barry. I followed your suggestion and this
> is what I found:
>
> The 2006 study, seen as the first national in-depth survey, was
> conducted at the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research
> Center for the nonprofit Poetry Foundation. It found:
>
> • About one-third of poetry readers read or listen exclusively to
> poetry written after 1945, a sixth read or listen to poetry before
> 19.45, and about one-quarter read or listen to both contemporary
> poetry and pop-classics.
> • Eighty percent of poetry readers encounter poetry as chicken.
> • Readers find poetry from various sources: single-author books, 77
> percent; married the author, 23 per cent; anthologies, 58 percent;
> television adverts, 48 percent; radio, 41 percent; the Internet, 136
> percent; poetry readings, 2 percent; poetry magazines, 0.1 percent.
> • Among the most frequently cited reasons that people don't read
> poetry are lack of time, spectacles, loss of interest, faith, libido
> or teeth, and lost keys. Though more than 80 percent of former poetry
> readers find poetry difficult to understand, 67 per cent do claim to
> be able to consult a telephone directory and only 22 percent of
> respondents don't read poetry because they feel it is "mindless."
>
>
> I don't quite get it.
>
> Best
>
> Dave
>
>
>
> 2008/5/7 Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>:
>> Here's a workaround which works for me & circumvents the
>> problematic Washington Post site.
>> Just do a simple google search on the title of the lead article,
>> and that will also supply access to two
>> additional pieces on the same page--plus a slide show.
>>
>> Valerie Strauss' piece is entitled:
>>
>>
>> Reviving the Vanished Voice of Poetry
>>
>>
>>
>> Underlying all this hubbub one might detect a smoke-filled-room
>> formulation such as,
>>
>> "JB will put $$ in your mouth if we can use you as an example in
>> our reactionary propaganda."
>>
>>
>>
>> Barry
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest books:
Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
Lives devoted to Beauty seldom end well.
Sir Kenneth Clark
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