|
Treating books like boiled spinach - something that's good for you, but you're not really supposed to enjoy - just makes students hate reading. As adults, we may read classic literature, but we do so on our own, no one tells us that we must read it. I'm reading Moby Dick now, and for the most part, I like it, but I would have chopped parts of it out. Make high school students read that book, and they are likely to hate it. No one's "wrong" to not enjoy it, insisting that this is great and that you're wrong if you don't agree just discourages students from reading.
Teach them to love reading, and they will discover better books. Shove the classics on them, and they will just stop reading.
|