As a future teacher, I often wonder if the classics have a place in high school classrooms anymore. Kids are forced to read through the books just because they are "classics". Do these books even relate to them anymore? If we want students to become avid readers (or at least somewhat interested in reading), shouldn't we try to appeal to their tastes? Obviously, we can't make every student happy. Looking back to my experience in high school, I was pretty pleased with the books that we read. However, there were some that I did not connect with. One example is Watership Down. It was a required summer reading before my 9th grade year, and I honestly don't remember if I read it all. I was just that uninterested at the time. Now, I would probably appreciate the text much more. At the time though, despite my love for English, I didn't know what to appreciate in literature. I don't think that important part developed until maybe two years later. Reading the required readings was just a robotic reflex. I wanted the grades, so I read at the surface level.
Now, after reading many different texts in college, I wonder if it would be possible to revamp the high school reading lists. I went from hardly reading in high school to reading on the weekends in college for fun. The material was so much more engaging, and the discussions were much more lively. Also, I could tell that the professors were much more interested in the texts...
If I had a dollar for every time one of my high school teachers said, "I don't like this book either, but we are required to read it" .............................
Another route would be to pair up the classics with the modern YA novels that actually interest students. The scenarios are much more modern. In my Literature for Adolescents class last semester, we read the novel Speak. This novel deals with rumors and coping with isolation. As a class, we decided that this could be paired with The Scarlet Letter. If you can find themes that relate between texts, you will be successful in getting the message across. While I realize that yet another reading requirement sounds daunting, I don't think that these YA novels require as much effort to decode as the classics. The themes are not hidden underneath confusing prose; instead, it is often told in a way that is familiar to most high school students.
I realize that I won't have a lot of freedom (if I have any at all) in choosing the reading lists for my classroom, but I think that it is an important point to reflect on. If a student doesn't find reading appealing in high school, it is likely that they will never read a novel again (unless they become an English major).
I agree with what you said here. In fact, halfway through I was remembering having read Speak in high school, too. High school teachers are in a bind because the state sets the curriculum. The funny thing is, none of these classics are directly tested in any standardized tests (e.g., TAKS or SAT), but the skill in analyzing them is.
ReplyDeleteIf students will not appreciate the classics, then there is no point. Classics are that way because they are appealing across time. If those students become English majors, then that will be the time to read them and enjoy them. Instead, lower education should be focused on getting students to be able to see a text document for more than the surface story. That is a highly advanced skill that some people don't believe most elementary, middle, and some high schoolers are capable of.
The solution, like you said, is to give the students something they will identify with and enjoy. Sometimes the original classics can be modified into a more palatable state, like the proverbial spoonful of sugar. The year under me in high school read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies instead of the original in order to appeal to more people.