My high school English teacher had a very narrow view of what qualified as worthy of being read, and my love of science fiction didn’t make the charts. Except for that time I got her to let me read Planet Of The Apes, and if you came in from the movies…stick to the movies. The book is not very interesting. High intellectual French stuff. So basically she tricked me with my own request.
When you take the fun out of reading and declare only a certain kind of book should be read regardless of the student’s personal taste, you ruin their love of reading. Lucky I’m stubborn and my mom encouraged reading in general. I’m not against having a wide variety. I have Robin Hood, Batman, Captain Kirk, and Tom Sawyer all in my library. However, Christina M contributed an article to Cracked going over all the ways high school teachers drain all the enjoyment out of their students’ reading experience. #2 is that teacher in a nutshell.
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