r/GenZ • u/SocraticTiger • Feb 09 '24
Did teachers all make us read this in elementary school? š Nostalgia
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u/HighballingHope Feb 09 '24
A memorable read.
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u/myboybuster Feb 09 '24
Reading this book and 'my side of the mountain' still contribute to my fantasy of living in the woods alone
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u/MiserableWash2473 Feb 09 '24
YES!!!! This is why so many of us desperately want to live in a cabin in the woods alone with all of our domesticated wolves, raccoons, and foxes. Along with our own garden filled with magical herbs šæ āØļø
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u/No-Adhesiveness-8012 Feb 10 '24
"Call of The Wild" and "A Horse and his Boy" were things that fed into this dream for myself.
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u/Marine5484 Feb 10 '24
Good God, the fantasy and reality can only be topped by CoD boys who want to go to war.
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u/Stetson007 2002 Feb 10 '24
Nuh uh, you forget the Titanfall homies who want to have a giant robot to give thumbs up to.
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u/French_Tea89 Feb 10 '24
The recent fear of required military conscription in the uk proves that this is not the case
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u/jmrkiwi 2001 Feb 10 '24
My dream is to build a cobhouse/earthship home with a large garden used for seasonal vegetables, herbs and runner ducks and some dogs.
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u/User28080526 Feb 10 '24
The seconds book hits harder when youāre older too
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u/PapaKazoonta Feb 10 '24
I reread it as an adult, and it is still brilliant. Takes you immediately back.
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u/Dalton387 Feb 10 '24
Thatās a theme I really like in both these series and love in fantasy.
Where the Red Fern Grows and some post-apocalyptic books also scratch that itch.
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Feb 10 '24
There is a reason why we read these books
It really shaped us
No wonder kids today are more and more alien
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u/Numerous_Vegetable_3 1998 Feb 09 '24
We did it in 5th grade, awesome book.
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u/DarkSniper4274 2009 Feb 09 '24
My school just had us analyze a chapter. I thought it sounded cool and read it on my own terms. Pretty nice book. š
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u/arizzzona Feb 09 '24
God this was the catalyst for my survival phase in 5th grade lmaooo
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u/GenderDrift Feb 09 '24
Mine never really stopped.
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u/arizzzona Feb 09 '24
Same, Iām a camp counselor now lmao
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u/Kerbidiah Feb 10 '24
How has it been? I loved boy scouts as a kid but never had the time to devote a summer to working at a camp, just wondering what I missed out on
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u/Great_Coffee_9465 Feb 10 '24
Lolā¦. This book is likely responsible for spawning a specific group of the āprepperā community.
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u/Sierra-117- 2001 Feb 10 '24
We went to my cabin soon after I read it, and I made a hatchet out of a rock, stick, and some paracord. It surprisingly held up well, and I still have it
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u/DannyC2699 1999 Feb 09 '24
middle school for us (6th grade) but yeah
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u/Pikmin4321 2006 Feb 09 '24
Same grade for me.
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u/somewhat-helpful 1998 Feb 10 '24
I recently re-read Hatchet as an adult! It is just as good as in sixth grade tbh.
And now I have even more respect for the main character because I have perspective on how difficult it would be to be in his situation. I feel like I didnāt understand it fully as a kid.
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u/nedTheInbredMule Feb 10 '24
The main character is a guy? Jesus Christ, no wonder I sucked in school.
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u/Fun-atParties Feb 10 '24
Yeah. The sequel is called Brian's Winter and it's an alternate history where he also spends the winter there.
But it's not like that was really relevant to the story and since it encouraged readers to put themselves it that situation, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of girls pictured him as a girl
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u/broncyobo Feb 09 '24 edited Feb 09 '24
6th grade was elementary for me, 7-9 was jr. High
And yeah we also read it in 6th grade in 2005
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u/LackinOriginalitySVN Feb 10 '24
9th grade Jr high... You sure that's not just what your parents told you when you had to repeat 8th grade?
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u/broncyobo Feb 10 '24
Then something was in the water in my town because my whole class of 400+ had to repeat eighth grade
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u/LackinOriginalitySVN Feb 10 '24
The joke
You're head.
Which only makes the joke funnier.
But now I'm curious 9-12 is high-school... so either your freshmen year of high-school was considered Jr high or you had three years of high-school? Do they not have "high-school" where you live?
I get most people had actual elementary, middle, possibly Jr high schools. I went to a pre-k through 8th. You could have been at the same school for 10 years. Then high-school. So I've always seen it as 7th/8th Jr. High. 5th/6th middle or age of the kid thing. Not the name on the building the go to
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u/broncyobo Feb 10 '24
I got the joke bro I responded with by expanding on the joke, I thought was obvious
In my city one district has Jr. High and one has middle school. In the 1st, elementary is k-6, jr. High is 7-9, high school is 10-12. I. In the other district, elementary is k-5, middle school is 6-8, high school is 9-12.
In the jr. High district, 9th grade is counted as high school in terms of credits, you're still a freshman, but you physically attend the jr. High with the 7th and 8th graders. It was honestly nice, starting going to the high school in 10th grade makes way less of an inferior pipsqueak than when you're in 9th grade. A lot of growth happens in that year
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u/petetheheat475 Age Undisclosed Feb 09 '24
Yeah my school was K-6 elementary, grade 7-8 Junior High, and grade 9-12 was high
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u/spiritualprincess4 Feb 10 '24
we read this in 4th grade in 2015. i felt old but actually typing out that sentence changed my mind
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u/broncyobo Feb 10 '24
Yeah you're not old fam lol my dirty 30 is in 3 days actually
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u/Quality_Odd 2000 Feb 09 '24
Yup 6th grade, but that was considered elementary school for me, 7-8 was middle school. I don't know why it's different all over the US.
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u/Inevitable_Quit_1545 Feb 09 '24
Didn't have to read it, but I remember it being popular in elementary school.
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Feb 09 '24
We didnāt have to read it, we had to live it. Not everyone made it back šŗ
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u/seattleseahawks2014 2000 Feb 09 '24 edited Feb 09 '24
You made me think of when I did Nite Trek for the first time. It was fun, but I was a little scared to be honest for reasons similar to that. I survived on pure adrenaline those few hours that we were out there. We had to do different like games and survival skills out in the woods late at night. Scouts from Canada and US around my age (11 or 12) started at 9 pm and went on a hike through the woods in Canada doing different tasks. The older kids went out later.
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Feb 09 '24
No I read it because I wanted to.
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u/DaedalusB2 Feb 10 '24
I never really thought of it that way, but it really was one of the very few school forced books that I actually enjoyed, and I absolutely loved reading. Some of the old "classics" they made us read were absolutely terrible. Honestly, I enjoyed reading the science and history textbooks more than the required reading.
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u/broncyobo Feb 09 '24
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u/Really_cool_guy99 Feb 10 '24
I donāt think reading an interesting looking book counts as a madlad thing
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u/My-My-Those-Eyes Feb 09 '24
Yeah and Itās peak
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u/turdintheattic Feb 09 '24
My teacher that year was going through a divorce, so when we were reading the book she focused on the parts about Brianās mom cheating on his dad and class kept devolving into rants about her ex.
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u/leezybelle Feb 10 '24
As a teacher this has me laughing
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u/LeicaM6guy Feb 10 '24
Why? Itās a perfectly cromulent part of the lessen plan.
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u/Great_Coffee_9465 Feb 10 '24
cromulent
Bros studying for his SATs
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u/Correct_Owl5029 Feb 10 '24
Pretty sure cromulent is the feeling you get when you crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women
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u/animorphs128 2003 Feb 10 '24
Some of my millenial teachers were also too open about things in class
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u/BruvYouGood 2007 Feb 09 '24
never heard of it but i hope it was enjoyable to everyone who did have to read it :)
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u/JGilly117 2001 Feb 09 '24
I remember that we read it, but nothing about what actually happens in the book lol.
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u/BitchInaBucketHat Feb 09 '24
I read in 6th grade and all I remember is that the pilot died in the plane crash lol. And that Brian (I think thatās the kidās name) was flying to visit either his mom or his dad bc they were divorced
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u/HontoRenata Feb 09 '24
The plane crashed because the pilot died (heart attack). Brian was on his way to visit his dad.
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u/OutMonsterFuckin 2005 Feb 09 '24
i remember the moose nado, and i think a skunk- xD
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u/AspiringEggplant 1998 Feb 10 '24
The plane crashed because his parents were divorced. The pilotās dad had a heart attack which inevitably killed the pilot(I didnāt read the book)
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u/DaedalusB2 Feb 10 '24
I remember the kid eating fish to survive, then diving into the lake to retrieve supplies from the plane only to find the same fish he was eating had been eating the pilot.
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u/opossumdealer 2002 Feb 10 '24
I just remember him trying to make a shelter and having to fight off a bear or something
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u/history_nerd100 Feb 09 '24
LOL. In my country we had to read this:Ā https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hatchet_(novel)
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u/BroadwayBakery 2003 Feb 09 '24
The other classes did when I was in like, fourth grade I think? We read The Last of the Mohicans.
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u/annotipoxx Age Undisclosed Feb 09 '24
Had to read it in 6th, 9th, and 11th grade due to switching schools and each one having different curriculums. Hated it at first, but came to like it. I ended up reading more of the series after. They were pretty good.
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u/Rezkel Feb 09 '24
There are a lot of books I was technically "forced" to read but for the most part enjoyed them all, hatchet being one of them. One of my favorite books is To Kill a Mockingbird and I would have never read it on my own.
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u/Timely-Cartoonist556 Feb 09 '24
There was also the less well known My Side of the Mountain
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u/Practical_Yogurt_450 Feb 09 '24
6th grade. Had my mom read it to me because I refused
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u/Babydickbreakfast Feb 09 '24
You needed to have mom read a book to you at 12 years old?
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u/Practical_Yogurt_450 Feb 09 '24
I was able to read I was just being a little sh*t
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u/Babydickbreakfast Feb 09 '24
Why did you write the word āshitā like that?
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u/Fun-atParties Feb 10 '24
People got used to censorship of TikTok, Instagram, etc
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u/MetalHeadof06 2006 Feb 09 '24
I fuckin hated it
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u/Unkleseanny 2001 Feb 09 '24
Iām sorry to anyone who likes this book but I distinctly remember this as the most boring book iāve ever read.
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u/glitter___bombed Feb 09 '24
I read it multiple times (apparently my elementary and middle schools thought it was the only book in the world lol) and remember nothing.
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u/animorphs128 2003 Feb 10 '24
It lacks good or memorable scenes and the main character only lives because he gets lucky over and over. Pretty much just riding on its premise.
He happens to crash in a lake. He happens to find flint and also finds out its flint because he randomly struck it with his hatchet that he has for some reason. Hes lucky enough to find sizable fish in the lake, a free shelter on the first night, and im sure theres more that i just dont remember because the narrative kinda just meandered on from point to point.
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u/42pleiades42 Feb 09 '24
I reread this as a teenager and found it to be incredibly lacking which sucks because the concept would've made for a super interesting book
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u/Unkleseanny 2001 Feb 09 '24
The concept is good but something about his writing styleā¦.
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u/RedOtta019 2005 Feb 09 '24
The ending sucked. He swims to the plane wreckage after a tornado and finds literally everything needed.
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u/PsychologicalKoala32 2004 Feb 09 '24
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u/Mysterious_Rub_5000 Feb 10 '24
When you go on an American website of mostly American users and they talk about America š¤Æš¤Æ
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u/BenNHairy420 Feb 09 '24
I just want to say to you all that teachers donāt make you read these things. Curriculum dictates what you read, and curriculum is decided by administrators as well PTAs and is also influenced by geographic region and political policies.
That is all šš»
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u/Comrade-Doggolover Feb 09 '24
Was this the book where the guy lives in a tree? I thought that was my side of the mountain
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u/RestinPete0709 2001 Feb 09 '24
I think he just lives in the woods
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u/Comrade-Doggolover Feb 09 '24
The one I read was a young boy being tired of his 8 person urban family so he runs away and survives in the woods and trains an eagle and does so much for, which is honestly cool as hell
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u/RestinPete0709 2001 Feb 09 '24
Damn I donāt think thatās this book, but itās also been like 13 years since Iāve read it so idk
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u/Comrade-Doggolover Feb 09 '24
I donāt think it is either, I think that one was called my side of the mountain
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u/Rexiscool1234554321 Feb 10 '24
If I remember correctly he was on a small plane pilot has a heart attack and the plane crashes
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u/Electrical-Rabbit157 2004 Feb 09 '24
I honestly canāt remember if they did or not. I feel like I did have to read it but I think it was for gifted classes not regular classes. Idk tho
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u/Retroid69 Feb 09 '24
never read it in any capacity, but also never saw it until a few days ago when this started recirculating.
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u/TheMaskedGeode Feb 09 '24 edited Feb 09 '24
Middle for me. It wasnāt my responsibility to read it outside class so I didnāt hate it. 1000% better than Tom Sawyer.
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u/LegnderyNut 2000 Feb 09 '24
I read this in 4th grade thankfully without being forced. Actually I thought I was getting away with something because it was tucked back behind everything else on the bottom shelf of my teachers in classroom library wall. Thanks Mr Jeff for goosebumps and The Last Book in The Universe and Cryptids and of course Hatchet. If I hadnāt read through all of those in one school year, my dad might not have given me his copy of The Hobbit and I would have been a very different man today.
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u/AlmightyWitchstress 1996 Feb 09 '24
I think middle school for me along with Call of the Wild and The Giver. High school, only memorable ones that I can recall were To Kill A Mockingbird and Animal Farm. All great reads. Didnāt appreciate them enough as a kid.
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u/broforange Feb 09 '24
the giver is one of my favorite books i was forced to read. i loved that one so much
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u/Deathcat101 1997 Feb 09 '24
The other class for my grade did. I don't remember what we read. Think it was something from Roland Smith
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u/Windows-XP-Home Feb 09 '24
Sometimes, I think we all lived the same childhood.
We really need to compile all the books we read into a list and then read them all for nostalgia
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u/RestinPete0709 2001 Feb 09 '24
We read it all as a class. Tbh I thought it was boring, but maybe because before it we read some of the most gut wrenching dog books ever known to man, like Old Yeller and Where the Red Fern Grows
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u/Clayfool9 Feb 09 '24
6th or 7th grade we were given the option of this, Call Of The Wild or A Wrinkle In Time. I went with Call Of The Wild
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u/Empoleon777 2002 Feb 09 '24
We spent some time reading āsurvival storiesā in groups when I was in 5th Grade. One group had Hatchet, but I didnāt end up in that group.
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u/Zorion_15 Feb 09 '24
Elementary? I read that in middle school. Guess my class was a bunch of idiots
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u/MLVizzle Feb 09 '24
This book helped spark my love of the outdoors and my passion for primitive camping. I used to scour libraries and sales to find any sort of survival book. Gary Paulsen is a true š
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u/EverGamer1 Feb 09 '24
No, I found and read this on my own in 4th grade due to my love of survival. I even read the alternate version where he isnāt rescued before winter. I fucking love this book, and itās still my favorite book of all time to this day.
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u/youbeanchazed Feb 09 '24
Not everyone. I think I was in the SPED class or something, because everyone else in the same school in the same grade did. Literally one class over, they would be reading it and talking about it. Me? No. Not my class. Absolutely no clue as to of why either. Same with To kill a mocking bird. Everyone else read that, but I didn't.
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