In another blog, where I sometimes hang out, a friend has asked for some suggestions for books for his 10th grade English class.
I must be honest and admit that I don't remember what books I read when I was in 10th grade. My fondest memories of reading literature for school come from my university days. (The only book I can recall reading pre-college is A Light In The Forest, and that may have been all the way back to my junior high days.)
And so I wonder, does the book itself matter so much as the teacher? Could reading, exploring, and tearing apart a cheap romance novel be educational and fun? Louis L'Amour or Zane Grey? Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke? Mack Bolan or Don Pendleton?
While I was a voracious reader throughout high school, I realize now that I didn't truly learn to read until I was in college. Whoever would have thought that I could enjoy Madam Bovary as much as I did? Or Chaucer, or Faulkner, or Momaday? I'm not sure that you could convince me that it was the works, as much as it was the instructors, who asked the right questions, making me focus and think along the right paths, making the reading enjoyable.
Thank you M. Dorner, D. Robinson, and O. Lund for that. I hope that my high school English teaching friends can do the same for others.
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I know that currently --or within the last five years at least-- A Light in the Forest was being used in 8th grade at WAPS.
I think I'd echo your teacher/book point. I ran into a former student last night (actually a kid from Lewiston, who I'd only been a substitute teacher for) who was raving that I made him read Lord of the Rings instead of watching the video (this was long before the Peter Jackson films; we're talking about the Ralph Bakshi production) and how much he loved reading the book.
Of course, he was pretty drunk while he was saying all this.
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