Legends of Windemere

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A conversation started at work between two coworkers and I got pulled into it.  One person was stating that they didn’t think the classics should be taught any more because it’s hard for students to connect.  The language is older and the themes might not come across as they would in a more modern story.  He used ‘Catcher in the Rye’ as an example of a book that doesn’t really connect any more.  The other coworker talked about how the classics should still be taught because they are designated as such for a reason.  You can probably guess the generations/ages of these coworkers.  It wasn’t an argument, but a friendly conversation.

I fall in the middle here because I hated some of the classics that we were forced to read in school.  ‘Catcher in the Rye’ and ‘The Pearl’ were agonizing to the point where I stopped reading them.  ‘Slaughterhouse 5’ was fun, but I don’t remember it anymore.  ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Great Gatsby’ were also good reads, but I don’t remember as much as I do from the books I read for fun.  ‘Of Mice and Men’ is one of the few that I have good memories of reading, which was surprising.  Still, I don’t remember thoroughly enjoying any of the books.

One of the problems with classics is that they’re typically assigned reading instead of students choosing them.  So, you already have a sense of a chore, which is made worse when you have to analyze.  The classics are infamous for having deep meanings that even the author might not have intended.  Some ELA teachers go to town on these books to the point where all sense of enjoyment is driven out of the experience.  That doesn’t really help them maintain their use when students who hated them, but love reading end up becoming teachers.  Then, you get some teachers who go through the motions of teaching the classics because they’re state requirements.  A book that survives in a culture solely by being assigned to students doesn’t help its reputation as anything other than a forced reading.

Recent years have shown that more modern books are being put in place of some classics to give students a look at other cultures.  ELA is now used partially to expose students to ideas, lifestyles, and cultures beyond their own.  For example, my son read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ last year, but also a WWII book called ‘Unbroken’.  He’s started reading ‘Of Mice and Men’ this year and will also do ‘Romeo & Juliet’, but he also read some Edgar Allan Poe and other short works.  So, there’s definitely a mix of stuff unlike one classic after another when I was in school.

A small aside: Why does William Shakespeare continue to survive in academia?  I know much of what we read can be traced back to him and his stories are considered timeless classics.  Yet, them being required texts can lead to issues.  Teachers have trouble teaching Willie’s works because of the language and the fact that they were supposed to watched on stage instead of read.  You have to really make it an interactive lesson, which is difficult when you have students glued to cellphones.  Makes me wonder if there will ever be a time that Shakespeare is pushed to college or an elective class after you’re introduced to one of his works in 9th grade.

Getting back to the classics, I think there is a place for them, but your average student won’t really get hooked.  They’ll see the books as forced reading from an older age, which they can’t usually understand.  Maybe it’s better to have these books as part of elective courses for those who want to read them.  Have them listed for extra credit if a student wants to do an analysis on their own.  Classics really do come from an older age that modern students don’t always comprehend just like people from that era don’t always get the modern stuff.  So, it really doesn’t do any good to force these books on them because they don’t always benefit.  Not to the extent that was done when I was school anyway, so maybe having fewer of them in the curriculum is better.

This also creates a future problem from book snobs.  You know the people who rattle off the classics they read as if that’s an award-worthy activity?  Those types probably make it even harder for others to get into the classics.  It gives off the idea that these books are either difficult to read or pretentious.  Even worse, a person can go in expecting one type of story and get something else, which could ruin the concept of classics entirely.  This really can’t be solved by forcing everyone to read them though.  You avoid the future problem of book snobs, but sacrifice or at least endanger a person’s enjoyment of reading these types of stories. Just can’t win at times.

So, what do other people think about students having to read the classics?  Should they be retired, put into an elective, continued to be assigned, or something else?