English Canon

So I read an article online that discussed the "Canon" of books commonly used in high school English classes. The article was trying to say that it is a good idea to update the list. Add more modern great novels in and subtract some older, harder to understand, BORING novels. I agree that it is important to update and add more relevant books. I also think its important to keep some old favs. Wm. Shakespeare should exist in High Schools in poetry and play forms.

However, my disagreement with the article happened when they stated that Twilight and Harry Potter were BAD books. They are purportedly "immature" and have characters and audiences that do not seek to ever grow up. I disagree. I think that if we really want our teens to be life long readers we need to teach them to read....for the fun of it! Think about the novels read by the average adult. They are not usually "American Modern Masterpieces." The novels on the Top 150 lists tend to be novels for entertainment purposes. John Grisham, Daniel Steele, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Dean Koontz and Nora Roberts just to name a few off the top of my head. If we want kids to read for life, we need to teach them to enjoy it. Don't get me wrong. I think the teens need to see the flaws in Twilight. Analyze the story separate from the flawed writing style. Learn to appreciate how/why books would hit the Top 150 and weed out the ones that are full of fluff. But let's be honest. Fluff is good in its place and time.

So its not horrible to approach teaching from a "if you can't beat them, join them" perspective. Compare Twilight to Romeo and Juliet...aren't both star crossed couples from the outside? Aren't both couples dead at the end of the story? Compare Harry Potter to Oliver....Orphans who end up in better places. I wish I'd had more fun stuff in High School. I would have LOVED to write a paper on a book of my choice. I would have worked harder on it and known more about the plot. I wouldn't have had Cliff Notes (or the newly popular Spark Notes) to help me with a non "canon" book. Keep the canon, but allow room for popular fiction too.

And for Pete's sake, where is the non-fiction? Other than a text book, I don't remember reading biographies or non-fiction of any sort. Don't we have room for something other than fiction novels, short stories or poems?

Ok, the English major/Teacher in me is done. I've said my piece.