Animal Farm
 

I'm going to assume that with the level of education on this site, most of you would be familiar with the novella Animal Farm by George Orwell.

Today, Aden showed his introduction for a paper he has to write, to his teacher, who told him that Animal Farm is not an allegorical piece of literature.

What do you say?

Unless they have changed the meaning of the word allegorical behind my back, I say his teacher is talking out of his/ her arse.

That's what I thought.

His teacher wants him to say it's satirical, which is also true, but not the only truth imo. I'm thinking about having a chat with this teacher if Aden has no joy on his own.

It's such an extraordinary thing to say, is there any chance Aden might have misunderstood the criticism? I know you have a bright boy, but I also know that things can get unintentionally twisted between school and home.

I agree it's worth a quick word with Teach though.
Animal Farm is usually an aide to describing allegory.
Is A Pilgrim's Progress just a nice story?

I worry about a person, especially a teacher, who doesn't understand why it's allegorical, he/she obviously didn't understand what the book is about.

I officially say ... WTF?

And let me just add:

Attachment 37588

He is not alone.

Yeah, this is pretty much what I expected. I knew he was right, but was just so dumbfounded by what his teacher said to him.

I've suggested that he continue on his current course, and we'll see how he goes for marks in the end.

It is only first draft stuff, but as I said, I thought it was really good and that he'd obviously put a lot of thought into what he wanted to say.

We'll see what the teacher has to say when he hands in the whole first draft for revision in a couple of weeks.

A quick search of online dictionaries inicates to me that Animal Farm is pretty much the definition of allegory and satire.

I don't really see how something can be satire and not an allegory, by some defintions satire is more 'modern' and concerns ' the folly of man' whereas allegory is more 'spiritual'. Could be where the teacher is coming from but IMHO they are wrong to be splitting hairs when a child has found a subject to be enthusiatic about.

Somtimes once a grade has been given it is hard to get it altered, things are then recorded in a system which would take effort to change, it might be better and easier to get the teacher on board earlier, a stitch in time....

*cough*yet more reasons to homeschool*cough*

I would encourage Aden to continue to work on the allegorical angle, but also devote some discussion to the satire as well. The teacher is right that it's satire, so it can't hurt to incorporate the teacher's comments, but it's also clearly allegory, so that should be discussed as well.

I bet it's a communication glitch. The teacher probably was trying to emphasize the satire, and said something that could be interpreted as dismissing the allegory, and Aden picked up on that and thought it was a clear refuting of the allegory, when maybe the teacher meant only to diminish it a little and focus on the satire. Unless the teacher has a history of being a tool, I would tend to think it's just a miscommunication. Teacher probably isn't that dumb.

If the teacher is teaching about writing, he may be insisting on using the word Satire because it is a TYPE of fiction. Allegory is kind of like a simile... a tool, not really a genre, so much.

or maybe the teacher is a wanker.

The teacher is obviously a pig. Allegorically speaking, of course.

*cough* For every teacher like this there are ten parents less equipped to prepare their children for a productive adulthood *cough*

^whs^

My 7th grade social studies teacher was more than happy to let me grab the encyclopedia and school him on the correct pronunciation of Edinburgh. He was all like "Well I'll be...been saying it wrong for years!"

Maybe the teacher wants the kid to think outside the box (what an overused phrase I know) and not just regurgitate the whole allegory essay. Or, maybe it's a crappy teacher. I also had a 7th grade science teacher who told us when we chewed our fingernails they all ended up in our appendix. :lol:

Well, he's certainly sparked discussion and interest, which is a sign of a good teacher.