Ah, high school English. We all survived it, and many of us writerly folks will end up teaching it at some point as well.  As someone who taught seventh and ninth grade English in the Bronx for three years,  I was particularly interested in this New York Times piece by Motoko Rich, “Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like,” which chronicles the attempts of several teachers to give their students more freedom to deviate from the canon and pick books that interest them. The article explores both sides of the issue, but focuses mainly on a few teachers’ attempts to  go against curriculum and allow students to pick their own reading material in secondary English classrooms.

This approach hardly seems newsworthy. Though I am unfamiliar with the current English teaching ideology in the NYC public schools, when I was teaching, most schools encouraged teachers to let students choose their own books; class sets of books were not even available at many schools.  Students picked their own books to read during SSR, or Sustained Silent Reading, books based on their reading levels and interest, and in many classrooms no books were read outside of that time. Teachers did not discuss themes or literary devices in particular books, but instead focused on reading skills, encouraging students to respond to their chosen book in a method also of their choosing.

The advantages to this approach are obvious. In today’s diverse literary world, my bookish friends and I will only read perhaps 50-75 % of the same books throughout the course of our lives. There is simply a wider range of quality literature being published now than ever before. While there are  still “writers of the moment” with whom the well-read are encouraged to familiarize themselves, the list widens constantly. Why should we, then, limit  our students to the same 100 “great books” we are supposed to read?

In addition, many  inner-city students do not “see themselves” in the books on the typical high school  reading list, books such as “Animal Farm” or “Catcher in the Rye”; they see no (immediate) relevance or relationship to their background and personal struggles.  Many of my students were also at very different reading levels, so reading books as a class was somewhat problematic.

But while much is gained by giving students the freedom to trade “1984″ for graphic novels or “urban lit,” something is lost by allowing students to choose whatever  books they like. I discovered so many of the books I now love from class reading lists, books I may have never picked up on my own. How can high school and college students completely know what books they will and won’t like? And isn’t there something to be gained from reading a book you hate or slogging through a book that seems boring at first?

It’s also hard to imagine a literary education that does not include lively class discussions of these books.  The benefit of reading books in class (a benefit which some of us cling to by going on for advanced degrees, starting book clubs, etc.)  is the depth of understanding gained by discussing these books with your instructor and peers. Defending a book or character you loved that the rest of your class hated is an invaluable skill. High school should attempt to prepare students for these kind of discussions.

Lastly, there is the argument that these students do not necessarily see their own lives reflected in the books traditionally read in high school classrooms. But isn’t there value in learning to see  yourself in characters who, on the surface, seem nothing like you? And while there is certainly value in becoming familiar with some of the world’s “important books,” there is also no reason instructors can’t have their entire classes read books that reflect the socioeconomic makeup of their students, or allow their students to have a say in the books the class reads together. I’m sure most teachers are doing these things already anyway.

Really, though, it all depends on the teacher’s goal for her students. Is the goal to prepare them for college literature courses? Then they need to be reading books as a group.  Is the goal instead to get “non-readers” to enjoy reading at least a little? Then maybe it is okay to allow them to choose their own books. But if the goal is really to make them life-long readers, then I think a combination of the two approaches is best, thus exposing them to new books and new ways to engage with books, while also allowing them to to take control and find books they really love.