So why, I wonder, is my tenth-grade daughter reading "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "Things Fall Apart" for her English class? I remember that I loved Chinua Achebe's novel about Africa--IN GRADUATE SCHOOL. What I see happening and have seen for a long time is high school English teachers and middle school teachers, too, ruining literature for young readers. In tenth grade, you ought to be reading Grapes of Wrath. You ought to read The Old Man and The Sea. You ought to read Jane Eyre. I have taught so many college students who never read Tom Sawyer, for pete's sake. And none of them have read Jane Eyre. My friend Chauncey says that The Great Gatsby is too sophisticated for high school students. Maybe. Unless, I suppose, they have a really good teacher.
It seems to me that some English teachers or whoever it is who designs the curriculum decided that the more advanced reading material they forced young readers to read, then the more advanced students they will produce. But how can you be ready to read Huck Finn if you haven't read Tom Sawyer? Save something for college. Spend time with the classics. Instill a love for literature, for story into them, before the theorists in college get their hands on them.
That's my rant for today.
Weeks later: I have to amend this post because now they are reading MAUS by Art Spiegelman (Not sure of spelling). Anyway, I think that's a terrific book for tenth graders to read--or anyone for that matter. So there are good contemporary books out there for that age group. I just wish they had the foundation in the classics.