Learnin' with Mr. Peanutbutter, Thursday, period 1

[hollywoostar]

Mr. Peanutbutter was looking almost twitchy, now. He had on his hipster glasses and his leather patched jacket and now he was even wearing a tie, artistically loosened -- over his v-neck tshirt. He still hadn't received any notes on how he was doing. Diane said the show was doing fine now, after the rocky start (which he didn't even know he'd had, seriously, where were his notes?!), something about digital content and Secretariat? Which had almost made Bojack look like he might be an Oscar contender, so must be a good thing. But still, Mr. Peanutbutter had never worked with so little guidance from a director. He was absolutely never working with this hack team again. Never let it be said that Mr. Peanutbutter wouldn't finish out his contract, though. He was no Hollywoo diva. He was in this for the rest of the semester.

Buckle in, kids.

"Welcome back, students!" he greeted when the bell rang, the twitchiness vanishing as if by magic. (It was magic: the magic . . . of acting!) That bell was like a director calling action. All the nerves and worries and script issues just bled away and real life Mr. Peanutbutter was immediately replaced with television darling Mr. Peanutbutter. He was such a good boy. "So we've managed to cover two of the three R's in class so far: writing and 'rrrrrrrrrithmetic. Let's take on that last R: reading."

He circled the desk and sat down on it, leaning forward. "Can I get real with you kids for a moment?" Of course he could, he'd taken the traditional 'get real with you' stance. "I do not like reading. Never got into the habit of it! And really, the book is a dying form. Do not tell my wife I said that." He chuckled, then got serious again. "But when you're in school, reading is important. You may never read another thing the rest of your life after you leave here." Please, please be sure to read other things after you leave here. "But while you're still learning, it's for some reason very important.

"Now, I had the good fortune to work with literary genius J.D. Salinger on my last television project: 'Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities What Do They Know Do They Know Things Let's Find out'." It was amazing how he was able to rattle that whole title off like it was nothing. "And while I was preparing for that show, I did some reading. I read the entire Cliff's Notes for Receiver in the Wheatfield and you know what? I did not understand it at all! I mean, just look at the title. Shouldn't that be about fetch? No one threw any sticks or balls or anything. It was just some kid complaining about how hard being a kid is! I couldn't relate in the least. Which is, of course, the true sign of great literature." You've all learned not to pay any attention at all to him, right? Oh god. "So today we're going to take some time to do some 'SSR', which is not, as you might guess, the new hip way of referring to the United Soviet States of Russia." Nobody thought that, Mr. Peanutbutter. And not just because that wasn't what "USSR" actually stood for. "It's 'Sustained, Silent Reading'. Doesn't that sound great?" It didn't. "Now some of you might be the nerdy type who actually just carries books of your own around for fun, but reading for pleasure is not the point of high school reading classes. So I do not want to see any fun books in here, today. Instead, I've brought some books from the library for you all to choose from!" He picked up a stack of large, dusty books and started to pass them out to the students. "We'll read for most of the class, and then I'd like each of you to give a short report on what you read and how you might use it to further your education. Let's get started, shall we?"

Comments

Sustained, silent reading

[hollywoostar]

Titles include, but are not limited to:
The Receiver in the Wheatfield
Our Adelina
King of the Bees
Agricultural Commune*
The Red A

[Mod your own high school reading list classics at will.
* Mr. Peanutbutter really especially deeply does not understand the premise of this book. Of course the animals are talking to each other and working together the way humans do. Why wouldn't they? This really just seems like a book about how early 20th century farming worked.]

Re: Sustained, silent reading

[era_two_triangle]

Peridot had picked up King of the Bees first, and was not too proud to admit that it was kind of resonating with her. A little. What with the people being stranded in a hostile and strange environment and all.

But it was going to be a slow process, since she was still working on actual fluency in reading in English, and she felt obligated to keep stopping to check with her screen to see what things like glasses and pigs were.

Re: Sustained, silent reading

[seeks_truth]

"Finally," Cassandra breathed. (By which she meant: finally, a class about something she liked.)

She picked up The Red A and was immediately engrossed.

Re: Sustained, silent reading

[faithseesred]

Faith wasn't really a big reader, and honestly, the book she picked was a little beyond what she could comfortably understand. But she got enough of the gist of it to come to the conclusion that it was pretentious, and she spent more time stubbornly staring at the pages than actually processing the words she was looking at.

Re: Sustained, silent reading

[imisscookiecat.livejournal.com]

Steven was terrible at silent reading. Having picked up Agricultural Commune, he couldn't help but audibly gasp at points. Or interject "He did what?!" and then look around sheepishly when he realized he wasn't being silent.

Re: Sustained, silent reading

[spell_chucker]

Khadgar absolutely had his own books in his bag (honestly, what else was the point of having a bag?) but he picked up King of the Bees anyway and was intrigued quickly.