Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Thou Shalt Teach CanLit

Regular readers of CLM might remember a post last year about the proposed legislation of mandatory Canadian content in BC high schools. Well, the bad guys won. The battle anyway. I'm still slugging away over at the Quillblog, if anyone cares.

UPDATE: Thanks to Peter Darbyshire at CanCult, who reminded me about this relevant article and the discussion that ensued. I'd completely forgotten about it.

UPDATE II: Thanks to Finn Harvor for reminding me that this interview I did with him also dealt with the CanLit in the schools issue. I'm glad someone's keeping track of these things...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

As this letter to The Vancouver Sun (July 30, 2008) indicates, "the bad guys" haven't won much.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/letters/story.html?id=73f9d582-ed83-4ebf-ab4e-e5178f75dea6

Until big bucks are specifically earmarked for the express purpose of purchasing the books, not much of present practice will change.

Zachariah Wells said...

Thanks, Lynda, this is something I was wondering about. I also wonder about how big a priority it will be for school administrations to police this legislation. Not very big, I don't imagine.

I'd be curious to hear your from-the-saltmines perspective on it, if you have time to spare.

Finn Harvor said...

Zach: For any readers of this blog who are curious, there's also the interview we did here:

http://conversationsinthebooktrade.blogspot.com/2008/01/zachariah-wells-poet-unsettled-and.html

Unknown said...

I'm not sure who the Bad Guys are. But the very fact that CanLit is being discussed and Canadian works by Canadians about Canadians that aren't Pince-Your-Nose CanLit are being encouraged is something to celebrate.

Kathleen Molloy, author - Dining with Death

www.diningwithdeath.ca
www.kathleenmolloy.offo.ca
www.lamortaumenu.ca