I’m back this Friday participating in another Let’s Talk Bookish post! This weekly bookish discussion series was created by Rukky @ Eternity Books and co-hosted with Dani @ The Literary Lion. However, in April of 2022, Aria @ Book Nook Bits took over! For this week, our topic is: Required Reading.
It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to do a Let’s Talk Bookish post! Naturally, I’m coming in with a potentially hot take. I’ll be curious to hear what you think!
Let’s discuss!
Prompting Questions
Here’s a few of the questions to help with this week’s prompt. Required reading. How do you feel about required reading? Do you think it is unfair and boring? Or do you think it helps students become better readers? What kinds of books do you think should be required reading, and what should classes avoid? Is it a good way of getting students to read old classics?
My Experience With Required Reading
So, in the American school system, required reading basically sums up to having to read a bunch of classic novels by (usually) dead white dudes. The writing itself is often out of touch, hard to grasp and unenjoyable. At least, that’s how I felt. Though I did have a background as a reader (though we have no idea where it came from), required reading was a bane for me. I found the books to be boring. I’d fly through them so I could get back to my fantasy books I’d picked out from the library.
So, I wanted to get that background out of the way, since it greatly informs my take.
My Stance
I do think there should be required reading in school. Reading creates so much opportunity for growth as a learner, introducing avenues for critical thought, close analysis, interpretation, introspection and subjectivity. Yet so many of my friends going up were first introduced to reading through our required reading syllabus in English class. So many of us found classics to not be our cup of tea.
So many of those friends still don’t read to this day.
Not because they can’t handle it. But because it’s tied to foundational memories where it wasn’t enjoyable.
So, my stance? While I do believe reading should be required and taught, I think the books chosen should be varied and influenced by the students.
My Recommendations
Let me explain. You’re in an English class, it’s 7th grade and you have to write a report on a book you hated. Say, Grapes of Wrath. (God, I loathed that book so much.) You conduct analysis you don’t understand and don’t necessarily put any extra effort into, because you hate it.
Now, let’s say the next unit is informed by you. You still need to write a report or analysis, but this time, your teacher helps you find a book you enjoy. You go to the library and work with librarians to find something that matches your interests. Suddenly, you realize that you can read a murder mystery. There are contemporary romances. There is fantasy and science fiction. Memoirs and sports stories and everything you can possibly imagine.
If you’re lucky and your school hasn’t been hit with a book ban, there are also books with characters who might look like you. There are books written for, by and about marginalized people. Queer books.
You’re empowered by the opportunity to choose. You feel respected for having your interests heard. And, you just might find a new passion, one you can share with your classmates, as you do presentations over the books you’ve discovered. And now, the rest of your units are influenced in such a way that is collaborative and engaging.
Now, let’s compare the two units, both that incorporate required reading. Which sounds more appealing to you?
In Sum
So, as you can see, I think there is some merit to required reading. But it’s also outdated, in my experience. It doesn’t invite a student to engage at their interest level or feel invested in a way that I believe our entire education system lacks (so focused, still, it is on numbers and test scores and admission rates). Especially during a time where books are actively being challenged and reading is being policed. Giving the choice to the reader, especially a youth reader, a chance to advocate for themselves is so important. Now more than ever before.
What about you? What was your experience with required reading like? Do you agree with my take here? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
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I’ve never thought required reading is as evil as people say, lol. School is full of assignments that students don’t enjoy, yet few people argue that kids who don’t like math should be able to pick and choose which equations they will or will not study. I think part of that is 1) because a lot of people figure they can read so they can speak authoritatively on reading, but a lot of people fear math or uncomfortable with it so they don’t offer teachers teaching suggestions on the subject and 2) a lot of people want reading to be fun–for a lot of them, it’s their hobby and they’re not really thinking of it as a subject with specific criteria to be taught. That is, some required reading is certainly chosen because it makes it easier to teach concepts like metaphors and symbolism, or it ties in with another subject the class is learning about, or because the teacher wants to tie it into current events, etc.
I also think many schools have been moving away from dead white male authors as required reading for years, but it’s hard for people who don’t have kids/aren’t in the school system to see this. Where I am, the public schools features not only lots of books by authors of color, but also YA books and graphic novels. And they have for a long time.
Of course, this might not matter to students who don’t like to read in the first place. The point for many isn’t that the book isn’t one they like but that anything required is going to automatically make some people resent it. Teaching The Hunger Games might just make a bunch of students resent it since it was required, no matter how much we might want to believe otherwise.
I do like schools where there are lists of books students can choose from. This presumably means the teacher has read them all and thus can comment knowledgeably on any analysis done by the student, but still offers student choice. I’m not quite sure if that means there is no class discussion on the book, though, if everyone has read a different book.
Personally, I always enjoyed required reading at school even when I didn’t like some of the books that were chosen. I genuinely felt like I was getting away with something by reading at night and saying it was homework.
I loved your perspectives on this, Krysta! (Personally, I’d change the math requirements too, but…*shrugs*)
I do think you’re right and my analogies can be very outdated, since I don’t have kids and don’t know the current curriculums. And I do think there will always be people who will hate that it’s required, like you mentioned. But I do like having more choice involved for the students!
Thanks for such in-depth thoughts!
Personally, I think a hybrid of the two is the best. Not all kids know what kind of books they’d be interested in reading. They might need some examples to choose from first. So, I would start with required reading from a good list that includes various different genres and eras, written by a variety of authors (gender and race, living and dead). Once they’ve experienced these, they can go from there onto the influenced kind.
Oh, I agree and I like this blending of the two!
Oh, completely! I loathe Dickens to this day, and Shakespeare just shouldn’t be read (viewed, yes!). Even when given some choice for class, it was so gatekept into a few ‘suitable’ areas… Sigh. Glad I still enjoy reading as much as I do!
Me too! I am very lucky I had good books at my library!
I agree with Krysta’s comment that not all required reading is quite as stodgy as it used to be, at least in my kids’ experiences. My daughter read a ton of varied books, some by POC authors, some by women authors, some by modern authors, and yes, a few by those old standard white male authors as well. My son is in a special education program and they have read 0 classics – they only read contemporary novels, usually YA and often graphic novels.
I definitely agree that there should be some choice involved in school reading, but I also think there’s room for some required reading as well, mostly because it fosters classroom discussions that you just can’t have if the whole class is reading different books. I actually kind of loved reading classics as a teen, and I couldn’t put my finger on why—but my daughter expressed an idea that made me think she might have been onto something. She said that she loved discussing a book in class, even if it wasn’t a book she would enjoy reading otherwise, and I wonder if that was the same for me. Especially since I actually think I loved classics more when I was young than I have now when I’ve tried to read them. LOL!
But I 100% agree that there should be room for reading books for pleasure in the curriculum as well. That way, more kids have a chance to find books they really love!
I do think both your comment and Krysta’s made me realize that my view is definitely aligned with what *I* was required to read and my naivety in assuming nothing had changed. I’m very glad that your kids’ experiences seem much more positive than the baggage than I bring!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Nicole! It was super helpful. 🥰