English 001

I spent my evening at Barnes and Noble tonight celebrating my $80 worth of gift cards I got for Christmas. I spent an enormous amount of time in the classics section. Each time I peruse those titles, I have the same thought: "How have I not read these before??" Why are we not required to read the classics in high school? The greatest parts of the English language are reading and writing. If one is not required to read good books, how will one ever know what good books are out there? Furthermore, how can you seriously consider yourself an English teacher if you're not making your students read the classics?

I understand perhaps skipping Faulkner. He's brilliant yet heavy and even the brainiacs in the front row might not go for it. But Charles Dickens? Ernest Hemingway, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain.. where are they? Had I not taken the self-titled class on Shakespeare, I would not have read more from him than Romeo and Juliet. There are a hundred reasons to be reading all of these authors' works again and again. What reason is there not to read them?

I can remember spending two months reading one book in high school English classes. These books weren't classics then nor will they be fifty years from now. Yes, read them but no, don't devote two months to them and don't choose them over elegant pieces of artwork that are also sitting on the bookshelves.

Many students don't continue taking English classes after high school or the first year of college. Therefore, high school is when all of these titles need to be introduced and reintroduced until they are truly ingrained in American culture once more.