A blog I frequent had a link to this post on author Laurie Halse Andersen’s journal. LHS is the author of, among other things, Speak.
I discovered Speak when I was student teaching. Mary Ellen, my cooperating teacher, started an afterschool book club, and this was one of their first selections. It’s an amazing novel, and teens really seem to respond to it.
Anyway, what caught my attention about this post was this:
The second question was posed by Dorian, who heard me speak at Cornell last week. He disagreed (politely) with my statement that teaching the Classics to many high school students is a waste of time, and further, it is detrimental to literacy efforts. This is a subject near and dear to my heart, so I’m posting my thoughts here.
I think this is an idea that many, if not all, English teachers struggle with. I think that in many cases, we teach the classics because “it’s what’s been done” or “we have to do it.” We tell students to swallow the medicine. They may not like it, but it’s good for them.
What we end up with, then, is a lot of students leaving high school with a hatred of reading. And that, I think, is the real tragedy.
LHS ideas and the ensuing discussion in the comments are fascinating. But we still end with the question, “how do we keep this from happening?” Where is the answer? How, in the age of testing, do we approach literature in an exciting and interesting way? How do we make sure that kids don’t leave our classrooms hating books? How do we make our way to a more literate society?
I don’t have any answers, but I think these are vital questions for any English teacher to consider.
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