Teachers and librarians

for teachers and librarians · what can be put to use first · writing in school last

Interlibrary loan is amazing. Books are right now on the way to me from the different parts of Norway, completely free, and available to every single person in the country.

@houshuang · 22 January 2024

Read these first, in this order

1. 1Nobody said it existedNever once did a teacher say to me "here's something a bit more literarily advanced that you might want to try".
2. 2Cricket in AustraliaSome kids get it from home, and some don't. It's not enough that some teachers are heroic.
3. 3But writing!?Writing in school: short reading comprehension answers, no whole stories, and what lots of practice has to do with it. From a letter to Skrivesenteret, August 2026.
4. 4Against screens — but what are you for?Only those with high social capital manage to be strict about screens and still fill the house with books.
5. 5Never heard of Hirsch thereWhat's even the point of lots of fancy theories and PhDs when you don't do the absolute simplest thing possible?

Everything on this

5 more pieces, in the order they belong together

• Case file · 2 September 2026The reading-for-pleasure strategy for adultsThe government is writing a reading-for-pleasure strategy for adults. What it asks about, what reading ambition adds, and five proposals from posts and letters.
• The Argument · 13 November 2025Where is the knowledge strategy for adults?Why doesn't Teater Innlandet have a little lecture series on theater history? (Why doesn't NRK????)
• The List · 15 September 2025Books that aren't at the front of the shelfOlder children's books, operas, plays and film. All tried out on a ten-year-old. Some have to be ordered through interlibrary loan.
• The Argument · 15 January 2025Just trust that it comes togetherFrom "I can't read plays" to twenty plays in one year. The advice that helped: just trust that it comes together. And a play takes two hours.
• In English · 10 January 2025How to read a playFrom «I find it very hard to read and enjoy a play» in April 2024 to twenty plays a year later, and the one piece of advice that helped: be patient, keep reading, it comes together.

Reading list

books and places · the sentences are mine, from The List, the catalog and what I've written elsewhere

• E. D. Hirsch: Why Knowledge MattersbookThis is an incredibly readable book about the big shift away from a focus on content/knowledge to a focus on "critical thinking", creativity etc. His argument is that you can't have critical thinking/creativity etc without "knowing things".
• E. D. Hirsch: Cultural LiteracybookSitting here reading E. D. Hirsch now — wanted to start with the oldest (Cultural Literacy) even though he's written a lot after that. An incredible amount here that makes sense.
• Jonathan Rose: The Intellectual Life of the British Working ClassesbookPretty incredible to read about how weavers in Scotland read Milton while they were weaving, miners got together to set up libraries, had theater companies that put on Shakespeare.
• Lynn: A Handbook for the Study of DramabookThe most important message was to be a little patient. Just trust that it comes together, and keep reading ;)
• Pollestad's Odyssey, read alongside Daniel Mendelsohn: An OdysseybookA really good combo that I can recommend if you want to introduce friends to this "world"...
• The Odyssey for kids, and the rest of The ListbookAnd for the kids there are lots of nice adaptations — my son liked Odyssevs reise. It's such a fantastically exciting story for kids too, and now he'll always know where the expression "Trojan horse" comes from, for example.
• BokselskapplaceIn Norway bokselskap.no has done a fantastic job, but I think very few people know about them.
• nb.noplaceThat said, nb.no is totally fantastic. I think it's so much fun to search through old books and newspapers. Not just that it's available, but that it has full-text search!
• Interlibrary loanplaceWe are so incredibly lucky in Norway that we have access to pretty much everything that exists, through free interlibrary loans. You just have to know that it exists.
• KulturbaseplaceA site where I'm trying to make Fjernsynsteater, along with programs about artists, and eventually also opera/ballet/symphony much more accessible. Also links to the text of the plays where they exist.
• Applaus Scene, for schoolsplaceBut, if you're a teacher — make sure your school subscribes to Applaus Scene, it doesn't cost much. And feel free to show Peer Gynt at school.
• The Catherine ProjectplaceThe time zones are unfortunately a bit outrageous, but there's a fair amount that's available from Norway in the evening.