As an up and coming future English Language Arts teacher, I cannot tell you how often the and how long the conversations I have about what books should and shouldn't be taught in the classroom are. Don't get me wrong, I love that conversation, especially because it is usually with my peers and fellow future English teachers and, although lengthy, the conversation is typically one that takes a lot of twists and turns with new ideas being brought forth frequently. However, despite teachers and future teachers constantly talking about the canon of literature, the stigma remains that only the "classics" should be taught in the classroom. So, I ask you, do the rookie novels even stand a chance if people aren't willing to budge on what they deem "classic" literature?
Hamlet
The Scarlet Letter
The Great Gatsby
To Kill a Mockingbird
Julius Caesar
Pride and Prejudice
Frankenstein
I could go on forever naming book titles that have been taught in high school for years on end, and with good reason. These books have extraordinary themes, lessons, character development, and so on, but you've got to admit that they can seem outdated and boring to a sixteen-year-old kid who is more concerned with what gossip is flitting about the hallways making its way through the entire junior class about who kissed who and who got detention yesterday for doing God-knows-what. It's a simple fact that, for the most part, students find reading, especially reading old books, unentertaining.
Now, you may be saying, "Wait, this girl is supposed to be an English teacher someday and she's bashing some of the most important literary works of all time? For the love of God PLEASE do not give her a teaching degree!" Well, hold your horses. As most English teachers are, I was, am, and always will be a book nerd in the best sense of the term. Half of those novels I mentioned earlier than can seem stuffy to some teenagers are some of my favorite books of all time.
So, what's the catch? A good teacher knows what does and does not engage his or her students and, even though I love those novels and they hold a special place in my heart for pushing me to become a teacher, failing to recognize that the majority of my students don't and won't have the same affinity for literature that I do would be doing them and myself a disservice. Failing to recognize that students need to feel a connection to characters in some way to connect with a book and that connection is not often found between a teenager circa 2018 and a thirteen-year-old shouting in Old English about dying for love because he didn't wait out a sleeping potion.
*Insert eye roll here* … C'mon, Romeo, a little patience would have sufficed…
So, at what point will newer and more modern texts be given the chance to stand on their own two feet and prove that they can hold just as much academic merit as those novels that make up the literary canon? And I don't just mean reworking classic literature into something more relatable and contemporary. Yeah, I'm calling you out, "Srsly Hamlet" and "YOLO Juliet."
My Sister's Keeper
The Host
Uglies
Perks of Being a Wallflower
1984
Divergent
There are so many novels that have come onto the scene within the past 20 or 30 years that hold just as much merit as classic literary novels, but they're simply newer and more relatable to today's students. Despite those facts, these books tend to fall by the wayside because it's not what was taught before. And, don't we all know that if it wasn't taught 30 years ago then it couldn't possibly be good enough to be taught now? *please note the heavy sarcasm*
The long and the short of it is that students don't have to dislike reading. If I had a dollar for every time a person felt sorry for me or made a comment like, "you're so brave" when I explain that I'm going to teach high school English, I could have enough to match my future teacher's salary. I get those looks of pity for teaching English because everyone *knows* that students hate English. Guess what… students hate English because they are forced to read books that are impossible for most teenagers to connect to.
I'm not saying all classic literature should be scrapped, there are still valuable lessons that can be learned from many classic novels, and students should absolutely be exposed to a wide range of literature, but don't fool yourselves. Students need something they can hold onto when they are trudging through a novel, and if there is even the slightest chance that they will enjoy a novel in my classroom because the language finally makes sense to them and there are characters experiencing things they have experienced, you'd better believe that I'm going to throw that book into my curriculum ASAP.
Students don't have to hate English class, but they do need to understand it, so why not give them a chance and introduce some books that are going to pique their interest instead of putting them to sleep with the Ye's and thou's and dost's of old.
