Quote:
Originally Posted by Rand Brittain
(The real reason for not teaching Shakespeare in school, or most of the other books that get taught in high school, is that kids don't enjoy him and forcing them to read "the classics" mostly just teaches them to hate reading.)
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I've been saying that on MR for a long time now. I agree that making kids read Shakespeare and other really awful books can very easily put kids off on reading. I know I hated Shakespeare because of school and I still do. I will never read anything by him. Other books such as
A Canterbury's Tale I found to be awful. However,
Hyperion by Dan Simmons I found to be very good and it's very similar. There were other books I really didn't like.
The way a book is taught can influence how it is perceived. I can see disliking a book because of the teacher when otherwise, it might have been enjoyed. School spoils too many books and too many kids don't want to read because of school.
Fortunately, by the time I got to the point in school where books were being destroyed in class or were just awful to start with, I was already enjoying reading for pleasure.