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I used to be a high school English teacher and curriculum developer. I'm going to try to offer a little nuance to this conversation about teaching classics.
When used well, classics can be great teaching tools, because literature is a conversation across centuries. 1/
When used well, classics can be great teaching tools, because literature is a conversation across centuries. 1/
Before I get into any of the reasoning behind teaching classics, I have to point out that many teachers do not have any choice in their curriculum. They have to be in lockstep with everyone else in their district. Others might not have any resources to choose other materials. 2/
At the school where I taught, I had access to the novels in our book room, textbooks, and that was it. I could print out extra materials, but I had a cap on pages. Our department head put extra funding toward this, so we were lucky. A lot of teachers don't have that luxury. 3/
When I started, I was teaching American literature. I had access to titles you probably recognize. But the list was very white, often dull, and it didn't reflect my students well. If I was bored, I knew my students would be, too. So, when the district told me... 4/
what I was supposed to teach, I said no. And I rewrote the curriculum around what I saw to be American literature, including whole units on Black literary movements like the Harlem Renaissance and on immigrant narratives. I wanted to teach Bless Me Ultima, too, but we didn't 5/
have that in our book room.
Anyway, I made a curriculum that reflected my students and their history, that got to the root of the complex, often fraught idea of what it means to be American.
The driving question for the class was this:
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Anyway, I made a curriculum that reflected my students and their history, that got to the root of the complex, often fraught idea of what it means to be American.
The driving question for the class was this:
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What is American literature? The beauty of thatâand of the way I structured my classâwas that there were myriad answers to that question. My major point in teaching was to get my students to probe complexity and nuance, to eschew easy answers/rote memorization and to THINK. 7/
Where do classics fit into this?
I'll answer that question with another question: What is a classic?
According to Mark Twain, they're books that people praise but don't read.
To me, classics are great works of literature that are also shared experiences. 8/
I'll answer that question with another question: What is a classic?
According to Mark Twain, they're books that people praise but don't read.
To me, classics are great works of literature that are also shared experiences. 8/
We all decide together what makes a classic. The only qualification for joining this conversation is to join it. Of course, there will be disagreements, because great works shouldn't be soothing pablum. But it's the shared experience of loving them or hating them that is key. 9/
So, when I taught The Great Gatsby, a book I love, I made it clear to my students that I wouldn't think any less of them if they didn't like it. You are not required to like anything. But the lessons you learn while we read it together can be applied to books you do love. 10/
But Miss Renner, I books are terrible, they would say.
No, I would answer, you just haven't found the right one yet.
They would pout and argue, and then a few months later, they would tell me I was right.
Sometimes the book they'd fallen in love with was one I taught. 11/
No, I would answer, you just haven't found the right one yet.
They would pout and argue, and then a few months later, they would tell me I was right.
Sometimes the book they'd fallen in love with was one I taught. 11/
They would tell me how they never knew how much they loved reading until they encountered Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Hughes, Leslie Marmon Silko, Rudolfo Anayaâand the list goes on and on.
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To anyone who says we shouldn't teach the classics, I'll offer up the many times when a student came to me with surprise and happiness on reading one of those above authors, saying they had no idea there were great works of literature written by people who look like them. 13/
Every reader has a gateway book. The classics really do work for many young readers. But they don't work for everyone.
That is something you learn as a classroom teacher: even your best-laid plans only ever work for half your audience. 14/
That is something you learn as a classroom teacher: even your best-laid plans only ever work for half your audience. 14/
So what do you do? You don't throw out what's working for some just because it isn't working for others. This isn't an OR situation. It's all about AND.
Teach classics, of course! Preferably decolonized classics. But teach classics AND modern work. 15/
Teach classics, of course! Preferably decolonized classics. But teach classics AND modern work. 15/
I usually taught classics and modern work side-by-side. Because modern work often refers back to classics. It riffs on them. It criticizes them. The more you have of both, the more you can understand of both. 16/
Many of my students got this, too, so their answer to the question "What is American literature?" grew from "stuff we're forced to read" to:
American lit is a conversation at an ever-expanding table. Much like what qualifies as a classic, it is constantly being redefined. 17/
American lit is a conversation at an ever-expanding table. Much like what qualifies as a classic, it is constantly being redefined. 17/
Judging by that answer, you might think I was teaching AP/IB English, and that this doesn't work for everyone else. Well, you're wrong.
Before they got to my class, most of my students had scored so low on tests that they were in danger of not graduating high school. 18/
Before they got to my class, most of my students had scored so low on tests that they were in danger of not graduating high school. 18/
Me helping these kids find literature they loved would change their entire futures in the very most literal sense. On my shoe-string budget, I tried everything. And with every single one of those kids, I eventually found something that stuck. 19/
Some of these kids loved The Great Gatsby or The Scarlett Letter. I don't know why. Others loved The Hate U Give or The Things They Carried or weird YA horror or romance novels or literary fiction or science fiction or fantasy. I made sure to open every literary door for them. 20
Does teaching classics work?
The girl who loved the Great Gatsby, who ran down the hall in the last month of her senior year and hugged me in tears to say she finally passed the test that would let her graduate high school because of my classâshe would say yes. 21/
The girl who loved the Great Gatsby, who ran down the hall in the last month of her senior year and hugged me in tears to say she finally passed the test that would let her graduate high school because of my classâshe would say yes. 21/
Some of her classmates might have disagreed initially. But after a while, they began to realize that no work of literature exists in a vacuum.
Knowing where we've been can help us appreciate where we're going.
I'm sure you'll all agree that with books, more is better. 22/
Knowing where we've been can help us appreciate where we're going.
I'm sure you'll all agree that with books, more is better. 22/
So, as a former high school English teacher, my take on reading and teaching classics is the same as the first rule of improv comedy: Yes, and...
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