Blog post 6: Readicide

The more I think about it, the more I believe that Readicide is real - at least to some degree. I know I'm not the only person who despises Shakespeare and struggled to stay focused while reading The Crucible; more often than not, I disliked the book or play I had to read for whatever English class I was in. I understand why these works are taught; besides the fact that they're "classics," a lot of them have themes that have been deemed important. The problem with this is that there are plenty of works today that contain the same themes, but can be more easily read. I wish I could be an advocate for Hamlet or Macbeth, but the truth is, I couldn’t stand them. I love the lessons that they teach and the underlying questions, but I can also find these concepts in books that are written in modern day English. Classic works should be taught in a way that students can understand them today.

 Unfortunately, we are trying to too hard to preserve these works of literature. Classics are deemed classics because they were extremely popular when they were released and for a period of time thereafter. But many classics aren’t enjoyed by students today, and that’s because they don’t think the same way students did decades ago. We have to adapt to our time period. I think we should adopt the “50-50” method of teaching half classics, half modern books. There are books that were written last year that are just as important as those written fifty years ago. Students may enjoy reading more if they feel they can relate to the characters more, or if they can at least understand the text. Just because a book is modern doesn’t mean it can’t be analyzed. Critical thinking skills can be built while reading Perks or The Fault in Our Stars. Eventually, even those books will be considered classics…so why not start teaching them now? We’ve changed the way we look at and teach other subjects, and English is long overdue for a makeover.