“Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience,”
Harper Lee’s famous line in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is still a universal lesson.
While Harper Lee published the book 48 years ago, the work is still required reading for millions of students in America. Even though required reading lists vary widely from school to school, according to the Department of Education, if you attended high school in the U.S., there’s a good chance that you also read “Lord of the Flies” (1954), “The Catcher in the Rye” (1951), “Of Mice and Men” (1937), and “The Great Gatsby” (1925).
15 years ago, a survey was done (Arthur Applebee, Center for Learning and Teaching of Literature) of what books appeared on schools’ required reading lists with the greatest frequency–here are the top 10 most-required books reported in 1993:
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”Romeo and Juliet”
”Macbeth”
”Huckleberry Finn”
”Julius Caesar”
”To Kill A Mockingbird”
”The Scarlet Letter”
”Of Mice and Men”
”Hamlet”
”The Great Gatsby”
”Lord of the Flies”
All of these books have earned the title “classics,” and capture a point in history. But in an effort to give students books that they can “identify with,” some teachers are choosing to give their students books with an African-American character, an autistic character, or a female author.
Some new staples with more recent authors include, “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time,” by Mark Haddon, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold, “Monster” by Walter Dean Myer, and “The Color Purple,” by Alice Walker.
Is it more important that the books challenge a student’s reading skills, or that the student identify with the writer or protagonist? Is a particular theme crucial to make the list? Are there some “classics” that should be bumped off the required reading list to make room for new literature?
Do you have suggestions for books you think should be added to the canon?
See the ‘updated list‘ provided by book blogger Bookfox, in our next post on the subject.
The documentary ‘Where We Stand’ casts an eye on the current state of education in the U.S., and what issues and methods need to be updated as we move into the future–you can watch it online.
Colin Says:
I think I would have difficulty replacing any of these books. Most of these create a strong foundation that informs contemporary, modern, and post modern literature that may contain themes too adult to teach in school. If anything, I think kids should be reading more today.
I also think “The Lovely Bones” was an awful piece of young adult popular literature and doesn’t provide the same learning opportunities, even if it is “fun” for kids to read. And while it makes sense for teachers to try and find ways to get kids to relate to text through identity politics, we also live in a country that will try to ban Angels in America, a seminal text about gay identity and a historical snapshot of the politics surrounding the HIV epidemic in New York, from public schools. http://www.cwfa.org/articles/14835/CFI/education/index.htm
The “great books” can unify our educational system in a way that contemporary literature can’t because of divisive political/moral/ethical views taken by the myriad of individuals in this country. I don’t think there’s a replacement to be found, just additions to be made.