Outlook: Ripped Books

Teens Increasingly Call Classic Lit Lame -- Because That's What Classes Teach

"As school starts up again, it's time to acknowledge that the lure of visual media isn't the only thing pushing our kids away from the page and toward the screen. We've shied away from discussing a most unfortunate culprit in the saga of diminishing teen reading: the high-school English classroom. ... I'll never forget what one parent, bemoaning his daughter's aversion to great books after she took AP English Literature, wrote to me: 'What I've seen teachers do is take living, breathing works of art and transform them into dessicated lab specimens fit for dissection.' ... When students have to produce an essay on a book they care nothing for, it becomes a nightmare for both the student (think 'all-nighter') and the teacher, who'll spend precious weekend hours reading papers devoid of content. The upshot of this empty drill: teens increasingly resistant to great books."

McLean School English teacher Nancy Schnog was online Monday, Aug. 18 at noon ET to discuss her Outlook article about the failure of English teachers to adapt to their students, and to hear your ideas for solving the problem.

The transcript follows.

Archive: Transcripts of discussions with Outlook article authors

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Nancy Schnog: Hello Readers, I am delighted to answer your questions today. Let's get going ...

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Williamsburg, Va.: Nancy, I am a recent college graduate with a BA in English. I'm all for changing teaching methods to get teens reading in greater numbers, but I don't think personal identification with literary characters is the only, or even best, way of going about it.

As you pointed out, it's easy for high-school juniors to identify with Holden Caulfield and thus become invested in "Catcher in the Rye" whereas "The Scarlet Letter" is often abhorred. I remember my high school experience with the latter work: it was several weeks of trying to extract "symbols" and "hidden meanings" via the tried-and-true method of "close reading." While grappling with all those abstractions, I didn't even have time to appreciate any similarities between Hesther Prynne's life and times and my own.

This is because we didn't talk about the book's sexual, political, and religious aspects: also known as the stuff which make "The Scarlet Letter" a controversial classic in the first place. I can think of several hot-button issues which can be discussed in the context of "The Scarlet Letter": religious persecution of women, the (de)merits of a theocracy, the blurring of divine and secular power. These issues are as present in the pages of the Post as they are between the covers of The Scarlet Letter.

Perhaps most students won't personally identify with these issues the same way they identify with a character like Holden Caulfield, but I am confident that if asked directly, today's high-school students would rise to the challenge of providing smart, honest answers to some hard questions using Hawthorne as a guide, inspiration, or even muse (via, of course, the important literary skills of citing evidence, constructing a logical argument, close reading, etc.)

Do teachers feel these subjects are taboo in high schools? Are they worried about administrative or parental interference? Or are there other pedagogical concerns which, in my experience, have served only to segregate literature from its rich, cultural context?

Nancy Schnog: I have taught high school only in the private school context, so I cannot address the constraints faced by public-school teachers, which are obviously quite different from my own. In my experience, I have always had the freedom to address "contextual issues" -- religious, feminist, historical. A discussion of any novel would be insufficient without that. However, the problem for high-school juniors typically has to do with the pacing of the plot and the difficulty of the language. Hawthorne's language is deeply complex, and many high-school students can't make their way through the demanding vocabulary and long sentences. Decoding the meaning of those sentences poses challenges, even for our best students. What many teachers struggle with in regard to TSL is the actual reading/deciphering experience. That, plus the heavy hand of description, poses real challenges.

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Silver Spring, Md.: As a graduate of a private high school that focused on classics (think entire courses in British, American, and world literature, and readings in Latin), I did not feel alienated. Although I hated British lit. with a passion, I absolutely loved American and world lit. I was shocked to learn that most high schools don't offer entire courses in those subjects, but offer generic 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade English. Give students more choices. I connected with American lit., but others may connect with world lit, or European lit. Why not offer alternatives? Instead of a student being required to take British lit, or regular 9th-grade English, let them take contemporary American lit. as an alternative. Have that course be more flexible -- let the teacher offer a few alternative books that the students can analyze. Have the class break up into groups of a few students who want to read a specific book, and present their analysis to the class. That way students have more exposure to a wider variety of books, and still learn the analytical skills that come with studying fiction. I believe there are books for everyone, they just need to find an author, period, or subject to connect with. (For the record, I went on to major in science in undergrad and grad school, but I have continued my life-long love of reading, despite having Brit lit. forced on me). I loved having the opportunity to dissect books in school, and I miss having the guidance of a teacher or professor now. Words are so powerful, it would be a shame for other students not to experience this because they're turned off by someone else's idea of a good book.

Nancy Schnog: Thanks for your comment. I'm glad you brought up the issue of all those wonderful high-school students who are going to jump the reading hurdles and tackle the classics no matter what. Typically, those are kids who enjoy reading and do well in English -- and, as you know, teachers adore those kids, for they don't have to struggle to get them to "buy in." However, in my experience that "talented tenth" tends to be a minority; and even though I teach in private schools, I believe passionately that it is a teacher's responsibility to instruct every child in the classroom. And a majority of those kids today don't have that "easy" relationship with books. Teachers have to create it. Flexibility is a great ideal, but you must remember that we teachers don't always have the authority over the books we teach. To different degrees, we're told what to teach. When a teacher is given a set curriculum of reading and writing assignments, there is only so much she can do to address the individual needs of every student in the classroom.

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Arlington, Va.: I totally disagree with your article. Yes, in a private school there may be rich, articulate students who do not need to be introduced to the "classics" and who are already reading for pleasure on their own. However, public schools and their communities rely on English teachers to expose students to reading -- culture, literature, etc. -- things that they may not get at home. Maybe the disaffected private school students can survive without reading Shakespeare because it's dreadfully boring, but really, books about wizards and vampires will only get you so far on, for example, an AP literature exam, or in college for that matter.

Nancy Schnog: I don't teach public school, so I cannot speak with any authority on the matter. What I would say as a general response -- and it's something I feel very strongly about -- is that you need to reach the students in your classroom; otherwise, it's a waste of time for educator and student alike. Sure, the ideal of introducing all our students to world classics is flawless, but what do you do when half your students are obviously checking out of those discussions due to boredom? (I experienced this with my month-long instruction of "Hamlet" last year.) Do you just accept that this 50 percent is lost to literature? I cannot accept that. I'm not saying drop "Hamlet," but I am saying make an age-appropriate choice or teach the book in "doses" that are palatable for the kids. Once they start to fade out -- and teachers see that all the time -- you're teaching for naught. Why make a mockery of the beautiful ideal of authentic instruction?

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Annapolis, Md.: You hit the nail on the head with your article regarding a teacher's/school communities ideas regarding what children should read and how they should read the material given. I was in agreement with you until you mentioned the point about your son not possibly being interested in a book with girls as the lead character. Your bias stopped me cold and is another important issue of bias in the class room that goes beyond curriculum and grades. Are you really saying that girls should accept Holden Caulfield, Jay Gatsby or Hamlet, et al but the reverse shouldn't be true?

Nancy Schnog: Ah, great point. I read another reader e-mail last night in regard to her concern about gender. First, let me tell you: I am a graduate of Barnard College and I see myself as having some first-class feminist credentials. (I hope the tone doesn't come across as bragging! I'm just really proud of the mission of my alma mater.) Well, my first objection to "The Garcia Girls" has to do with "age-appropriate assignments"; developmentally, I think that most 14-year-olds, boys and girls, are not yet experienced or mature enough to resonate with the book in a powerful, meaningful way. As I say in the article, why do we need to push teens to a false sophistication? It's analogous to other issues in our culture where teens, at earlier and earlier ages, are thrown into the abyss of adult culture -- sex, drugs, alcohol, eveything goes (The new TV show "Gossip Girls" is just one example of this). The psychologist David Elkind has written powerfully about the pressure in American culture for kids to grow up too fast. Second, I am ambivalent about assigning "girl-oriented" stories to young male teens: Why? Because in the main, they don't like them. Again, I'm a realist. I believe in some stretching and teasing out and challenging, but not to the point of killing interest in books. And, way too often, that's the result of such assignments.

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Midwest: Ms. Schnog, thank you for your article. While identifying with literary characters is a powerful motivation to read, one of the great values of reading is providing a window into the lives of others. Learning to see the world from different perspectives is an incredibly valuable skill, and I wonder how you address that in a curriculum centered solely on works like "Catcher in the Rye" that feature high-school students. Also, how do you convey the lesson that while not every academic discipline will relate directly to the student's personal life all the time, study is still worthwhile?

Nancy Schnog: Thanks for a great question. You are posing a question that, I think, is one of the most difficult for high-school teachers. I have to say -- and, again, I'm speaking only for myself, not as a pronouncement for others -- that I believe "relevance" always needs to be created and discussed. And, frankly, if a teacher is sensitive to the depth and breadth and complexity and nuances of the human condition (and, gosh, one would hope that every humanities teacher is!), that relevance shouldn't be difficult to locate. Sickness, family and friendship, love, loss, disappointment, failure and success, sexuality and dreams, death -- these are universal subjects that every great story engages. A smart and creative teacher can create relevance if the story is about a 17-year-old boy or a 90-year-old from Patagonia!

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Falls Church, Va.: Dear Nancy -- What is being done or can be done to get the state to change reading requirements that dictate so much of what high schoolers are required to study? Since you are a private-school English teacher, is it the SAT tests that keep you selecting reading material that teenagers find irrelevant? If so, what needs to be done to keep those tests from dictating what all high-school students must study? Sincerely, Doris Baker

Nancy Schnog: Again, I cannot speak to the public schools, and I do believe that private schools come in all shapes and sizes; therefore, teachers will have different levels of curricular freedom. Personally, what I found when I was told what to teach is that the curriculum did not always match the needs and interests of my students. And it is a terrible experience for a so-called "professional" teacher not to be able to diagnose and address the needs of her own students. As I wrote in my article, that happened to me last year with the unit on British Romantic poets. I argued passionately "to mix it up" and give the bored majority a break, and I was told that the "CURRICULUM" prevails. When a teacher loses the freedom to meet her students' needs in the way that she feels is most appropriate -- when a teacher loses her freedom to teach what she loves and how she does it best -- teaching becomes a real bummer. Again, a reduced travesty of the incredible possibilities that education could otherwise hold!

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Washington, D.C.: Hi Nancy... Do you really think learning should always be comfortable? You seem to suggest that we cow tow to teenagers, yet this crop of teenagers (Millennials) have been totally coddled their whole lives. When do you suggest that we stop making their lives so easy and get them into the nitty gritty of learning?

Nancy Schnog: This is one of my favorite questions -- I struggle with it all the time and don't know if I have a pat answer "in a nutshell." I want you to know that I am a "toughy" in my own way. I hold a Ph.D in American Studies, and I know that I didn't earn those analytic and rhetorical skills through "coddling." It was tough -- blood, sweat, and plenty of tears. But you know what? When I was in high school, I never, ever thought that my life would head in that direction. What I'm trying to point out is that a high-school teacher needs to find just the right point -- and perhaps this is what differentiates the good teachers from the great teachers -- between challenge and comfort, between stretching and pleasure, between drill and creativity. My educational philosophy, I suppose it's true to say, begins at the end: if your student has fallen asleep or faded out or lost interest, you are not doing your job! Key instructional moments are being lost once that student pulls the curtain down over his brain. So why challenge or push at that point, if you've already lost your pupil? It's like a parent screaming at a child to clean a room -- you rarely get the intended result.

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Anonymous: How important is fiction in our citizens' lives anyway? I have a Masters degree in English Literature. I read a lot of books -- my latest are "The Geography of Bliss" and "The End of Poverty" -- and yet I haven't read fiction in 10 years.

Nancy Schnog: I really understand where you're coming from. I do think the value and role of fiction has changed in American culture in the past 20 years. In the 1990s, you'll recall, there was a "memoir explosion"; that seems to be the period when the triumph of fiction gave way to the relatively new dominance of nonfiction genres. Like you, I have developed strong interests in nonfiction genres, probably because there's so much great writing out there now. Also, there's the issue of the "information overload"; we have access to so much information, so many books, so much news, it gets harder and harder to sit down for long periods of time and cultivate the solitude demanded by fiction. And, obviously, the rise of a "visual media" -- movies, Youtube, Facebook -- has complicated the fate of the book. Finally, I loved "The Geography of Bliss." Great book -- highly recommended to all!

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Great column: And I do think schools don't think about it. My class was forced to read "Pride and Prejudice" and I hated it in high school. I missed out on Jane Austen until my late 20's because I didn't appreciate her humor in my teens. Ditto George Eliot and "Silas Marner" and Charles Dickens and "Great Expectations" -- ugh. "Lord of the Flies," on the other hand, is a perfect middle school to 9th grade book.

Nancy Schnog: Your comment speaks directly to another major difficulty faced by high-school teachers: the one-size-fits-all book. There are few of those. You loved "Lord of the Flies" in 9th grade; my daughter hated every page of it in the 8th. Another student is going to adore Austen as a senior, while (probably) her male counterpart would prefer to live without it. It's clear to me that to create in teens a love for reading -- which, for me, is a key goal of my work -- that we teachers need to individualize more, allow pleasure into the classroom (not at the expense of challenges -- that's the tricky part!) and give students the freedom to follow some of their tastes and preferences.

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Alexandria, Va.: Following this discussion, I feel as though I need to defend my fellows. I am a high-school senior, enrolled in AP Lit and took AP Language last year. The dissection and "butchery" of literary works is a greatly hated practice among my peers. We are never given a reason Why? We are given highlighers and copies of text, told to find at least three metaphors and five similes along with the juxtaposition of this work and another. Excuse me, what?

The classics and titles our teachers choose (or are told to choose) are not the only problem. You said in your article how many of your students gushed over Caulfield and Fitzgerald, my class was the same, but all joy in the work was quickly extinguished as my teacher asked for daily essays on what we read. Yes, we did well on our AP tests. At what cost? More and more, especially in Virginia and Fairfax County, teachers are merely teaching to a test. Every day without fail my lang teacher referred to our AP test and how we needed this and that and the other. Our "discussion with the text" as she called it, was limited to packets of outlines. We would be put in groups and told to dismantle each sentence to find some hidden meaning. It is mind numbing! Do teachers even really consider sacrificing a 5 on the test for maybe a 4 or 3 so that their students can actually appreciate the literary world before them? It isn't that we hate reading. We hate the mind numbing, senseless analysis. We hate the strict path of correctness -- agree with this view on "The Great Gatsby" or suffer your C+. Where is the love of literature supposed to spring from?

Nancy Schnog: Bravo to you, writer! You ask such an important question and express yourself so beautifully! I have not taught an "official" AP class, because my school did not track English. However, the expectation at my former school was that my junior class should be "on par" with the AP level.

Like you, many of my students have spoken to me, year after year, about the "butchery" dilemma. The problem as I see it, is that many English teachers were trained as English majors in the "close-reading methods" that they use in the classroom. Some of those methods, I have to say, I think are critically important. They teach kids to look closely at language and to decipher nuances -- skills that citizens in a free society need. To me, what differentiates "decent" instruction from "outstanding" instruction is the educator who can balance two things at one (F. Scott Fitzgerald defined that as "brilliance") -- teach the analytic skills, but also know how to conduct the important discussions, the ones that include reflection on the deepest issues of life. A book I love -- although a high-school student may find it difficult -- is Mark Edmundson's "Why Read?" His thesis, in a nutshell, is that humanities instructors need to tie their book-teaching to a very old-fashioned concept: the conduct and meaning of life. If every English teacher was helping his charges to walk that road to self-discovery, I don't think any of our teens would be bored. To return to your question, ban the AP classes and the SAT-emphasis and make education about the joy of intellectual discovery, the pain of confrontation with our world's most atrocious realities (war, genocide), and the quest to live ethically and transcendentally. That's my assignment to my students for the years ahead!

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Nancy Schnog: Thanks so much to all of my readers who have taken the time to write. I appreciate the book recommendations and lesson tips, the supportive e-mails as well as the critical notes , which, no doubt, will help stretch my own thinking. I hope that all of us concerned about making the English classroom a place of engaged and authentic learning -- and not a place, where to quote education writer Denise Clark Pope, students "do school" (i.e., robotically fake it) -- will join together for dialogue, innovation, and reform. Thank you for joining me today in this discussion.

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