Not sure it's "hysteria." I'm not a lockdown cheerleader but it was notable to me how many people I knew who were (mostly mildly) sick and then I saw this article, seems like something that can reasonably be reported on to me.

Libraries are actually doing a good job of providing the services they're supposed to, so clearly they have too much money

Got to go to the Prauge/Budapest/Vienna zone

> themes and motifs

There are absolutely themes in historical analysis. It's true you don't learn about literary motifs, but that doesn't seem like a topic that justifies English taking up more time in school than any other subject. Also, I don't remember much time being spent on "motifs" in English classes anyway.

> separate authors intent from readers interpretation

Of course you learn about this in a history or sociology class, both explicitly in textbooks and implicitly when analyzing primary source documents, which are almost never unbiased or entirely accurate.

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Another thing: if English really is about the deeper meaning of media it should mostly ditch novels and focus on movies, television, news articles, and social media. Most people only read novels occasionally and *never* read poetry. The only reason they teach literary fiction is because literary fiction is generally considered to have more aesthetic value than great television or TikTok, which I personally agree with but also think is basically irrelevant.

I don't believe that's a skill which is all that distinct from general literacy and comprehension, especially given the way English is taught in K-12. There's really very little doubt in my mind that people learn more from reading 1984 than reading about the Soviet Union and analyzing primary source documents

I sure would, unless those novels are closer to novellas.

I don't even know why we spend so much time teaching "English" in the first place when those same skills could be built in a history class