Michael Clay Thompson's Classics in the Classroom is the resource I wish I'd had in high school, when my questioning mind butted up against literary analysis. The...let's say, "pull it out of your butt" aspects of AP English class drove me up a wall. I found it hilarious that I could write an A paper on Conrad's Heart of Darkness by delving into the deeper meaning of the odor of rotting hippopotamus. LOL. Thompson's approach, and his exploration of Bloom's Taxonomy, helps me to see the WHY of analysis. It's also got a terrific book list.
My kiddo is doing something similar in math, getting frustrated by anything he can grasp quickly, longing to just dive into an entirely novel subject and wrestle it into submission. For mine, though, I do feel like there's got to be some mediating influence. I can't let him do diving-in exclusively...I don't think. Especially not when he also still gets at least as frustrated if he CAN'T force the material to submit to his intellect, at least not without a little bit of direct instruction. (Oh how it galls him to have to watch one of Richard Rusczyk's videos when he's working on Alcumus math!) LOL.
Anyway. Good luck!!
