There are so many laughable claims in that WSJ hitjob, but I'm going to focus on the first (of so many) things I learned from @juliaerin80 @triciaebarvia @TchKimPossible @nenagerman and #DisruptTexts-that the canon is a construct, and that English teachers construct it. A thread.

Unlike the writer of that piece, I did some research. So many of the texts that we hold up as objectively "canonical" and "classic" were added to high school reading lists in response to student needs, because they were more *relevant* and *engaging* than their predecessors.

JD Salinger's own biographer said that the inclusion of Catcher in the Rye in English curriculum was a response to the "youthquake": “A feature of the youthquake was, of
course, that students could now tell their teachers what to read.”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/366646?seq=1

Bonus: You can read that whole Catcher article for examples of actual book-banning, a practice for which #DisruptTexts has never advocated.

Romeo and Juliet (not one of Shakespeare's best, let's be real) only became a popular high school text after Zefferelli and West Side Story: "In the late '60s, schools were overhauling their curricula, trying to make learning more relevant." https://www.folger.edu/shakespeare-unlimited/romeo-juliet

As @obrienfolger says here, "Students would have more energy and enthusiasm for things that they wanted to read, than things that they should read, and if you want a student to get into the habit of reading, you should start with something that's interesting to them."

Here's an @ncte English Journal from 1961(!) arguing for Lord of the Flies, not because of its literary merit and "high culture" (whatever the hell that is) but because of the "excitement it can engender in otherwise apathetic readers."
https://www.jstor.org/stable/810851?seq=1

As for the writer's precious, precious Homer -- I wonder why so many English teachers in the mid-20th century dropped the more widely-read Iliad in favor of The Odyssey. Is it because The Odyssey is somehow more classic and canonical?

The canon is a construct & so many of the titles people are breathlessly defending were *made* canonical by teachers who wanted students to be excited about reading, to recognize themselves and each other in these stories (Bishop). #DisruptTexts is an essential part of that work.

But #DisruptTexts is also so much more. Placing a book in a student's hands is both a powerful act and an act of power. #DisruptTexts rightfully, needfully asks us to understand and question that power. I am so grateful to them. (end)