What's the point of required reading?

Peter Doyle2 said:🤣
Don't worry—if my kids ever end up under my roof, they'll have to read Waiting for Godot because it’s just—well, it's just how it is. 🤣 But I'll probably end up treating them with some modern, age-appropriate stuff instead. I have a daughter now. Twilight rules. 🤣 Honestly, I wish I had a mother who treated me with more relevant material when I was 17; the whole process left me pretty traumatized. Or whatever. Ugh, goosebumps. Forget it.
Anyway, it seems equally obvious to me that the curriculum and state testing put an insane amount of pressure on teachers. It's a mess...

But hey, we're on a forum. We aren't in a meeting with the Secretary of Education. Let's just, for a second, talk about what would be "ideal."
What should required reading actually serve in this day and age?
College students can process things at their own pace.
A person's relationship with books and reading is—in my opinion—something built over a lifetime.
And when it comes to high school reading lists, there are way more people who found them revolting than those who actually appreciate them. At least if you try to step into a teenager's shoes (and yeah, even at 30, with all this frustration toward the political establishment, I’d probably value the process more. When I was 17, it just left me with trauma).

Let's talk—even if we're just barking at the moon—about what needs to happen so that the voices of us mere mortals, the students and parents, are actually heard regarding this whole reading list issue.
As a book.
As a medium that is dying out.
As something many of us truly loved, but were taught to hate because of school assignments.
(I'm not the only one—again, Peter Doyle2, look back through the posts).

We live in mediocre times in a mediocre country with mediocre principles that seem stuck in the dark ages. Can we at least talk here about what isn't working? What could be better?
Maybe one day someone from this group will become the Secretary of Education and remember that adding fantasy to the curriculum would be a great idea. 🤣

Btw, my kid is years away from any kind of reading list, let alone high school level. Peace—I hope they don't even have to deal with it in this country this year. But still. This forum is for discussion. Let's talk about what's wrong.
And btw 2, my husband isn't a gas technician, but he is a graphic editor, and he had to wait for Godot 😬 how or why, beats me 🤷

It might change its shape, but it’s never going away.
It’s just not possible.

Peter Doyle2 said:🤣
Don't worry—if my kids ever end up under my roof, they'll have to read Waiting for Godot because it’s just—well, it's just how it is. 🤣 But I'll probably end up treating them with some modern, age-appropriate stuff instead. I have a daughter now. Twilight rules. 🤣 Honestly, I wish I had a mother who treated me with more relevant material when I was 17; the whole process left me pretty traumatized. Or whatever. Ugh, goosebumps. Forget it.
Anyway, it seems equally obvious to me that the curriculum and state testing put an insane amount of pressure on teachers. It's a mess...

But hey, we're on a forum. We aren't in a meeting with the Secretary of Education. Let's just, for a second, talk about what would be "ideal."
What should required reading actually serve in this day and age?
College students can process things at their own pace.
A person's relationship with books and reading is—in my opinion—something built over a lifetime.
And when it comes to high school reading lists, there are way more people who found them revolting than those who actually appreciate them. At least if you try to step into a teenager's shoes (and yeah, even at 30, with all this frustration toward the political establishment, I’d probably value the process more. When I was 17, it just left me with trauma).

Let's talk—even if we're just barking at the moon—about what needs to happen so that the voices of us mere mortals, the students and parents, are actually heard regarding this whole reading list issue.
As a book.
As a medium that is dying out.
As something many of us truly loved, but were taught to hate because of school assignments.
(I'm not the only one—again, Peter Doyle2, look back through the posts).

We live in mediocre times in a mediocre country with mediocre principles that seem stuck in the dark ages. Can we at least talk here about what isn't working? What could be better?
Maybe one day someone from this group will become the Secretary of Education and remember that adding fantasy to the curriculum would be a great idea. 🤣

Btw, my kid is years away from any kind of reading list, let alone high school level. Peace—I hope they don't even have to deal with it in this country this year. But still. This forum is for discussion. Let's talk about what's wrong.
And btw 2, my husband isn't a gas technician, but he is a graphic editor, and he had to wait for Godot 😬 how or why, beats me 🤷

I can't say I agree with this one.
Maybe I’m mixing my metaphors here, but I honestly think the weight falls on the teacher. It’s their job to make a book actually interesting and accessible to a student, not to make them absolutely loathe reading it.

How exactly does reading become such a chore?
Stupid tests where the questions are written for absolute morons:
What color is Anna's dress?
Which side of the room is the voting booth on?
How much of this and that are we looking at? I haven't seen anything yet.

Turning a required reading assignment into a ten-question quiz designed specifically to weed out anyone who didn't finish the book is a massive mistake. Honestly, it’s worse than just being bad teaching. It turns students into little search engines rather than readers. Instead of actually engaging with the story, they’re just hunting for specific traps—memorizing tiny details solely to avoid getting caught by some trick question. They aren't absorbing the narrative; they're just playing a game of "avoid the trap." That's my take on it, anyway.

I don't really see how things would be any better if we were forced to read stuff like Harry Potter or Twilight for school assignments. ☕

Just to be clear, I don't think this is how everyone operates, but I've definitely seen plenty of professors doing it.

what color are the curtains? - just asking

We’re still talking about elementary and high school here; we could probably dive into college life for a bit.

Back when I was in college, our midterms involved reading specific literary works, and then we'd be handed three or four quotes. We had to identify exactly which section of the book they came from and explain how the passage continued.

If the exam focused on poetry, it was mostly fill-in-the-blank style, where you had to supply the missing word for a specific line. 🙂

Larry Walker24 said:what color are the curtains? - just asking

Back in high school, I used to deal with literature tests exactly like this.
"What color was the dress the mother wore to the protagonist's christening?"
"Exactly how many gold coins did the thief swipe from the chest?"

And so on. It actually led to one massive blowout argument I had with my teacher once. 😳

@nosorog, please don't try to lecture me on my own tastes (my current 🤣). I’ve come to the realization that I’m basically just revisiting where I left off as a kid :O My reading level is pretty much stuck in the teenage years—which is probably why most of my Goodreads profile is dominated by YA 🤣
Jokes aside, you made an interesting point... genres, eras, history... sure, I agree, but I have to ask: is it actually necessary to read these works cover-to-cover as required school reading? Is it really insufficient to just analyze them during class? To me, it feels like a high schooler in music class being forced to listen to and memorize an entire Bach concerto in G major (just guessing here), rather than just the most essential movement.
I'm speaking from the perspective of a teenager—or at least, a young person who is constantly "at odds with everyone." Honestly, forcing this stuff on us feels like reading "Evangelion" to five-year-olds in preschool 🤷. A large portion of these books simply wasn't written for kids that age—and we are still talking about children 🤷
And regarding the books themselves—they're supposed to be read with deep understanding. Very few people here mentioned Faust. Luckily, we didn't read it, though I've heard of it; I know there are those for whom it was mandatory, but seriously, is THAT what a high schooler needs? Isn't there a more appropriate way to "introduce" that literary era and teach the facts and significance?

@Daniel Perez6, I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. I'm actually kind of afraid that the book itself might simply—vanish—under the flood of technological advancement. Or perhaps it will become a very, very rare phenomenon—something akin to oral folklore before the invention of the printing press 😉
Maybe it's just inevitable 🤷
So how does high school required reading fit into all this? In my opinion, it doesn't encourage students to read at all; if anything, it pushes them away because of the sheer volume and content.
I'll say it again: we are talking about children (regardless of how much teenagers feel they are adults).
Which books require you to "immerse" yourself in characters who are adulterers, murderers, and so on, living in entirely different eras.

edit: And honestly, in defense of my high school teachers, I have to say they never asked us (or did so extremely, extremely rarely) questions about the color of curtains, wallpaper, or things like that. Our high school reading assignments usually boiled down to discussions during free periods. Sometimes there would be a quick review or even "tests," but generally, they were discussions. It wasn't a bad approach at all. Really. I can't blame my teachers one bit for my aversion to high school reading lists. I blame the content itself. I may have been a high school student, but I was also a teenager—dealing with wild hormones and a desire for something intimate when dealing with something deeply personal, individual, and open to interpretation, like a book.

In American English, we have grammar, literature, workbooks, and all of that (except for grammar) covers almost the exact same thing—the specific period or movement currently being studied. Why does the required reading list—which, realistically, is already becoming an alien concept to an increasing number of kids—have to be tied specifically to that curriculum?

Jamie Davis9 said:I am not retracting my position; rather, it seems you are approaching these posts as if they were required reading for a literature exam. My point remains exactly what I stated: parents most frequently blame subpar teachers for everything that goes wrong, conveniently choosing to ignore their own failures and the inherent limitations of their children.

No, no, no.

You’ve completely ruled out the possibility that terrible teachers might actually be the reason kids don't read the assigned books.

For someone trying so hard to present themselves as a highly educated American literature professor, you sure are being... quite rigid, aren't you?

Peter Doyle2 said:@nosorog, please don't try to lecture me on my own tastes (my current 🤣). I’ve come to the realization that I’m basically just revisiting where I left off as a kid :O My reading level is pretty much stuck in the teenage years—which is probably why most of my Goodreads profile is dominated by YA 🤣
Jokes aside, you made an interesting point... genres, eras, history... sure, I agree, but I have to ask: is it actually necessary to read these works cover-to-cover as required school reading? Is it really insufficient to just analyze them during class? To me, it feels like a high schooler in music class being forced to listen to and memorize an entire Bach concerto in G major (just guessing here), rather than just the most essential movement.
I'm speaking from the perspective of a teenager—or at least, a young person who is constantly "at odds with everyone." Honestly, forcing this stuff on us feels like reading "Evangelion" to five-year-olds in preschool 🤷. A large portion of these books simply wasn't written for kids that age—and we are still talking about children 🤷
And regarding the books themselves—they're supposed to be read with deep understanding. Very few people here mentioned Faust. Luckily, we didn't read it, though I've heard of it; I know there are those for whom it was mandatory, but seriously, is THAT what a high schooler needs? Isn't there a more appropriate way to "introduce" that literary era and teach the facts and significance?

@Daniel Perez6, I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. I'm actually kind of afraid that the book itself might simply—vanish—under the flood of technological advancement. Or perhaps it will become a very, very rare phenomenon—something akin to oral folklore before the invention of the printing press 😉
Maybe it's just inevitable 🤷
So how does high school required reading fit into all this? In my opinion, it doesn't encourage students to read at all; if anything, it pushes them away because of the sheer volume and content.
I'll say it again: we are talking about children (regardless of how much teenagers feel they are adults).
Which books require you to "immerse" yourself in characters who are adulterers, murderers, and so on, living in entirely different eras.

edit: And honestly, in defense of my high school teachers, I have to say they never asked us (or did so extremely, extremely rarely) questions about the color of curtains, wallpaper, or things like that. Our high school reading assignments usually boiled down to discussions during free periods. Sometimes there would be a quick review or even "tests," but generally, they were discussions. It wasn't a bad approach at all. Really. I can't blame my teachers one bit for my aversion to high school reading lists. I blame the content itself. I may have been a high school student, but I was also a teenager—dealing with wild hormones and a desire for something intimate when dealing with something deeply personal, individual, and open to interpretation, like a book.

In American English, we have grammar, literature, workbooks, and all of that (except for grammar) covers almost the exact same thing—the specific period or movement currently being studied. Why does the required reading list—which, realistically, is already becoming an alien concept to an increasing number of kids—have to be tied specifically to that curriculum?

I wouldn't call myself an optimist; I just feel pretty certain that books will change their format, but they won't ever go out of style or become obsolete. People have been reading books for thousands of years; the medium evolves, but the core thing doesn't disappear.

Peter Doyle2 said:@nosorog, please don't try to lecture me on my own tastes (my current 🤣). I’ve come to the realization that I’m basically just revisiting where I left off as a kid :O My reading level is pretty much stuck in the teenage years—which is probably why most of my Goodreads profile is dominated by YA 🤣
Jokes aside, you made an interesting point... genres, eras, history... sure, I agree, but I have to ask: is it actually necessary to read these works cover-to-cover as required school reading? Is it really insufficient to just analyze them during class? To me, it feels like a high schooler in music class being forced to listen to and memorize an entire Bach concerto in G major (just guessing here), rather than just the most essential movement.
I'm speaking from the perspective of a teenager—or at least, a young person who is constantly "at odds with everyone." Honestly, forcing this stuff on us feels like reading "Evangelion" to five-year-olds in preschool 🤷. A large portion of these books simply wasn't written for kids that age—and we are still talking about children 🤷
And regarding the books themselves—they're supposed to be read with deep understanding. Very few people here mentioned Faust. Luckily, we didn't read it, though I've heard of it; I know there are those for whom it was mandatory, but seriously, is THAT what a high schooler needs? Isn't there a more appropriate way to "introduce" that literary era and teach the facts and significance?

@Daniel Perez6, I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. I'm actually kind of afraid that the book itself might simply—vanish—under the flood of technological advancement. Or perhaps it will become a very, very rare phenomenon—something akin to oral folklore before the invention of the printing press 😉
Maybe it's just inevitable 🤷
So how does high school required reading fit into all this? In my opinion, it doesn't encourage students to read at all; if anything, it pushes them away because of the sheer volume and content.
I'll say it again: we are talking about children (regardless of how much teenagers feel they are adults).
Which books require you to "immerse" yourself in characters who are adulterers, murderers, and so on, living in entirely different eras.

edit: And honestly, in defense of my high school teachers, I have to say they never asked us (or did so extremely, extremely rarely) questions about the color of curtains, wallpaper, or things like that. Our high school reading assignments usually boiled down to discussions during free periods. Sometimes there would be a quick review or even "tests," but generally, they were discussions. It wasn't a bad approach at all. Really. I can't blame my teachers one bit for my aversion to high school reading lists. I blame the content itself. I may have been a high school student, but I was also a teenager—dealing with wild hormones and a desire for something intimate when dealing with something deeply personal, individual, and open to interpretation, like a book.

In American English, we have grammar, literature, workbooks, and all of that (except for grammar) covers almost the exact same thing—the specific period or movement currently being studied. Why does the required reading list—which, realistically, is already becoming an alien concept to an increasing number of kids—have to be tied specifically to that curriculum?

I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and a handful of others have works that run well over 500 pages.
Just look at Harry Potter—how long are those?
Or Twilight?

Do you really think teachers couldn't find a way to make those engaging if they actually tried?

Peter Doyle2 said:@nosorog, please don't try to lecture me on my own tastes (my current 🤣). I’ve come to the realization that I’m basically just revisiting where I left off as a kid :O My reading level is pretty much stuck in the teenage years—which is probably why most of my Goodreads profile is dominated by YA 🤣
Jokes aside, you made an interesting point... genres, eras, history... sure, I agree, but I have to ask: is it actually necessary to read these works cover-to-cover as required school reading? Is it really insufficient to just analyze them during class? To me, it feels like a high schooler in music class being forced to listen to and memorize an entire Bach concerto in G major (just guessing here), rather than just the most essential movement.
I'm speaking from the perspective of a teenager—or at least, a young person who is constantly "at odds with everyone." Honestly, forcing this stuff on us feels like reading "Evangelion" to five-year-olds in preschool 🤷. A large portion of these books simply wasn't written for kids that age—and we are still talking about children 🤷
And regarding the books themselves—they're supposed to be read with deep understanding. Very few people here mentioned Faust. Luckily, we didn't read it, though I've heard of it; I know there are those for whom it was mandatory, but seriously, is THAT what a high schooler needs? Isn't there a more appropriate way to "introduce" that literary era and teach the facts and significance?

@Daniel Perez6, I'm not nearly as optimistic as you. I'm actually kind of afraid that the book itself might simply—vanish—under the flood of technological advancement. Or perhaps it will become a very, very rare phenomenon—something akin to oral folklore before the invention of the printing press 😉
Maybe it's just inevitable 🤷
So how does high school required reading fit into all this? In my opinion, it doesn't encourage students to read at all; if anything, it pushes them away because of the sheer volume and content.
I'll say it again: we are talking about children (regardless of how much teenagers feel they are adults).
Which books require you to "immerse" yourself in characters who are adulterers, murderers, and so on, living in entirely different eras.

edit: And honestly, in defense of my high school teachers, I have to say they never asked us (or did so extremely, extremely rarely) questions about the color of curtains, wallpaper, or things like that. Our high school reading assignments usually boiled down to discussions during free periods. Sometimes there would be a quick review or even "tests," but generally, they were discussions. It wasn't a bad approach at all. Really. I can't blame my teachers one bit for my aversion to high school reading lists. I blame the content itself. I may have been a high school student, but I was also a teenager—dealing with wild hormones and a desire for something intimate when dealing with something deeply personal, individual, and open to interpretation, like a book.

In American English, we have grammar, literature, workbooks, and all of that (except for grammar) covers almost the exact same thing—the specific period or movement currently being studied. Why does the required reading list—which, realistically, is already becoming an alien concept to an increasing number of kids—have to be tied specifically to that curriculum?

It’s all about reading, reading, and more reading.
Expanding vocabulary, sparking the imagination, stepping into a different era, and so on.

Standard homework isn't the same thing as literature assignments.

If we follow the logic of cutting things just because they're difficult or boring, we should probably just scrap math altogether. Math is usually the hardest subject for everyone.

... and that clearly makes no sense. 😉

Karen Richardson3 said:And why shouldn't required reading give students a chance to see what's actually being published today?

Why couldn't one part of the curriculum be about the historical evolution of literature, while another massive chunk focuses on modern and contemporary works?

Right now, the reading lists basically stop at the start of the 20th century—I don't even think they touch anything from the interwar period... contemporary stuff is totally ignored.
When it comes to that level of depth, you barely even get it in college.

I'm really curious to hear your take on why things are stuck this way.
To me, it feels like everyone would much rather dive into books they can actually relate to—stories that tackle the issues we face right now or look at morality through a modern lens.

I don't see any good reason for this other than pure laziness from the people designing the curriculum, who just keep pushing this same old "historical overview" model even though plenty of experts in the field aren't on board with it at all.

My arguments?
Look, this isn't just my personal opinion; it's the standard educational philosophy driving most school systems across the globe.
The fact that we don't have an elective reading option is the only thing setting us apart from that global standard, though even that varies depending on which school district you're looking at.

James Perez54 said:No, no, no.

You’ve completely ruled out the possibility that terrible teachers might actually be the reason kids don't read the assigned books.

For someone trying so hard to present themselves as a highly educated American literature professor, you sure are being... quite rigid, aren't you?

Good grief...🙄 I never once excluded incompetent teachers from being a cause for reading struggles, among other factors.
I simply chose to focus more on the other side of the equation.
For the sake of balance. What I actually dismissed was the idea that a student might grow to hate reading entirely because of a poor teacher; given how much flexibility there is in modern education, I just don't see how that could happen. A good teacher can help spark an interest, but a bad one isn't capable of stifling a natural inclination.
Back in high school, I had a truly terrible English teacher. Her lectures weren't even poorly delivered, she was just a total sadist. She picked on us for no reason at all, constantly making our lives difficult. At that time, parents didn't really step in to challenge school administrations like they do now, so I felt pretty stuck in a situation I couldn't escape until graduation.
Did I end up hating her subject because of her? No. I went on to get my degree in it. In the grand scheme of things, she was, and remains, completely irrelevant.

amberskipper3 said:My arguments?
Look, this isn't just my personal opinion; it's the standard educational philosophy driving most school systems across the globe.
The fact that we don't have an elective reading option is the only thing setting us apart from that global standard, though even that varies depending on which school district you're looking at.

There!

It feels pretty mindless that everything follows a strict chronological order instead of being tailored to where students actually are developmentally. Take high school freshmen, for example—they’re stuck wading through the Iliad and the Odyssey right out of the gate. Wouldn't it make more sense to start with something like *The Most Dangerous Game* or *The Diary of Anne Frank*, and then save the heavy hitters for when they've matured a bit? As it stands, Anne Frank ends up in eighth grade, and because she's tucked away near the end of the syllabus, there's barely any time to actually cover her work. Meanwhile, you've got stuff like *The Hunter in the Woods* sitting in senior year, which often gets skipped entirely because the curriculum is too busy checking off boxes in order. We’ve been living in the twenty-first century for quite a while now, yet the system acts like we aren't. To me, it just doesn't add up.

Jessica Chavez4 said:It feels pretty mindless that everything follows a strict chronological order instead of being tailored to where students actually are developmentally. Take high school freshmen, for example—they’re stuck wading through the Iliad and the Odyssey right out of the gate. Wouldn't it make more sense to start with something like *The Most Dangerous Game* or *The Diary of Anne Frank*, and then save the heavy hitters for when they've matured a bit? As it stands, Anne Frank ends up in eighth grade, and because she's tucked away near the end of the syllabus, there's barely any time to actually cover her work. Meanwhile, you've got stuff like *The Hunter in the Woods* sitting in senior year, which often gets skipped entirely because the curriculum is too busy checking off boxes in order. We’ve been living in the twenty-first century for quite a while now, yet the system acts like we aren't. To me, it just doesn't add up.

😕
The twentieth century is covered toward the end of junior year and throughout senior year.
*The Old Man and the Sea* is read in freshman year.
Regarding the entirety of the Iliad and the Odyssey, only a few books of the Iliad are actually read; the rest is just lectured on in class.

Well, maybe things have shifted since then.

Daniel Perez6 said:I wouldn't call myself an optimist; I just feel pretty certain that books will change their format, but they won't ever go out of style or become obsolete. People have been reading books for thousands of years; the medium evolves, but the core thing doesn't disappear.

I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration.
Authors like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and a handful of others have works that run well over 500 pages.
Just look at Harry Potter—how long are those?
Or Twilight?

Do you really think teachers couldn't find a way to make those engaging if they actually tried?

It’s all about reading, reading, and more reading.
Expanding vocabulary, sparking the imagination, stepping into a different era, and so on.

Standard homework isn't the same thing as literature assignments.

If we follow the logic of cutting things just because they're difficult or boring, we should probably just scrap math altogether. Math is usually the hardest subject for everyone.

... and that clearly makes no sense. 😉

Of course it makes no sense (just like getting rid of required reading), but there really needs to be a distinction made between essential knowledge and unnecessary fluff.

Given how massive the math curriculum has become—most of which is specifically tailored for future engineers (and considering how many people actually enter those fields 😉)—the reality is that most Americans today can't even divide two three-digit numbers without reaching for a calculator.
Not to mention basic percentages or calculating interest rates...☕

Jessica Chavez4 said:Well, maybe things have shifted since then.

As far as I can tell, nothing substantial has actually changed in that regard since my own school days.

Daniel Perez6 said:We’re still talking about elementary and high school here; we could probably dive into college life for a bit.

Back when I was in college, our midterms involved reading specific literary works, and then we'd be handed three or four quotes. We had to identify exactly which section of the book they came from and explain how the passage continued.

If the exam focused on poetry, it was mostly fill-in-the-blank style, where you had to supply the missing word for a specific line. 🙂

Peak stupidity.

Jamie Davis9 said:Exactly—it’s just like how people who struggle with math often face the brunt of the blame when their teachers failed to properly introduce them to basic intervals.
Honestly, I don't understand where this obsession comes from regarding whether children "must" love reading; some kids will enjoy it, and others won't, and that's just life.
Children who already possess an affinity for reading will naturally find the curriculum easier to navigate than those who don't, but you can't force that spark.
The required reading list isn't to blame for a lack of interest in books.
When I talk about high school reading lists, I'm referring to a curated collection of the finest literary works ever produced, organized chronologically so that any true lover of literature can always find something profound and engaging.
In elementary school, the selections are age-appropriate—some might be dull and others fun—but I find it utterly baffling that people think school holds more influence over a child's interest in books than, say, their own parents do.
At its core, required reading is just a monthly assignment to be completed, and there is no logical way it could serve as the primary or most decisive driver for a lifelong passion for reading; I hope it's clear to everyone just how absurd it is to expect such a thing.

p.s. I should also mention that the death of Smail aga Cengica is an exceptionally well-written epic.

Honestly, I used to feel the same way after finishing a heavy piece of literature. I’d feel this desperate urge to go run through some light, breezy paperback just so I wouldn't lose my mind—it was exactly like that jarring sensation when you're forced to jump straight behind the wheel of a car immediately after being stuck in gridlock traffic.

Jamie Davis9 said:Over the last decade, they've been pushing *The Transformation* pretty hard, even showing up on AP exams. But forget *The Process*; this year, one of the essay prompts was actually about Hemingway’s shorter works. Truly complex literature, I’ll give you that—perhaps a bit too dense for your average high schooler. But here is what I did: I read them aloud to the class, fully committing to "performing" every single character😁, and let me tell you, they were floored. They loved the stories and the style. It really goes to show how little effort some teachers put in.
If they hadn't tackled those classics in school, there's a massive chance ninety percent of them would never have voluntarily picked up anything that profound or beautiful. It's hardly a loss, though, because I certainly won't be recommending it to anyone who hasn't already experienced it.
And that's my answer to your second question.

I am certain there were plenty of actually decent books on that required reading list. I never bothered to pick them up, even though—if they hadn't been mandatory assignments—I probably would have. But because they were part of the curriculum, I just assumed they’d be a total disaster, much like the rest of my schooling. 😁

Jamie Davis9 said:As far as I can tell, nothing substantial has actually changed in that regard since my own school days.

I don't know about her. We spent three hundred years waiting just to get our hands on one decent book, and then we just lost interest.

Linda Price5 said:Honestly, I used to feel the same way after finishing a heavy piece of literature. I’d feel this desperate urge to go run through some light, breezy paperback just so I wouldn't lose my mind—it was exactly like that jarring sensation when you're forced to jump straight behind the wheel of a car immediately after being stuck in gridlock traffic.

I am certain there were plenty of actually decent books on that required reading list. I never bothered to pick them up, even though—if they hadn't been mandatory assignments—I probably would have. But because they were part of the curriculum, I just assumed they’d be a total disaster, much like the rest of my schooling. 😁

And look at you, you've certainly made some progress!

Linda Price5 said:Honestly, I used to feel the same way after finishing a heavy piece of literature. I’d feel this desperate urge to go run through some light, breezy paperback just so I wouldn't lose my mind—it was exactly like that jarring sensation when you're forced to jump straight behind the wheel of a car immediately after being stuck in gridlock traffic.

I am certain there were plenty of actually decent books on that required reading list. I never bothered to pick them up, even though—if they hadn't been mandatory assignments—I probably would have. But because they were part of the curriculum, I just assumed they’d be a total disaster, much like the rest of my schooling. 😁

Well, they say you shouldn't hold any of it against yourself. 🙂 Some of those books might even be grateful you gave them a chance.

The school system handles just about everything for us, which is precisely why we’ve ended up in this mess.

Larry Walker24 said:Peak stupidity.

Idiotism?
Look, if you're an English major, knowing key passages from relevant poets isn't some kind of idiotism—it's literally the bare minimum required to pass.

It's just basic stuff, like how math majors have to memorize formulas or chemists need to know their periodic table symbols.