Reading Strong High
What 5 books or other pieces of literature to all high school graduates need to have read ...?
... Before going to college? I am a high school English teacher and there is much debate about what high school students actually need to read before starting college. Do they need to read Huckleberry Finn and The Scarlet Letter or do they need to read more contemporary works? How many Shakespeare is necessary?
I would be wrong to restrict the list to five, but I first start my answer by giving you some good reading that might provide some useful guidance and help in finding an answer that best fits your situation. I would higly recommend books ED Hirsch, including Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to know. You may already be familiar with Hirsch and the Dictionary of Literacy cultural, but otherwise I think you will find it insightful not only for book recommendations, but also for education research is providing hearing on the issue. Mortimer Adler (in project Poedia FAME) has created a list in his book Education reform is much more than five. In the spirit Grand old tradition of the great books his main list contains 104 entries, many of these entries are authors who have written many books to count individual books of the list could range from several hundred. Of course, the constrain of time prevents many high school career in four years. As a college professor, I am always shocked by what the students right out of high school not knowing. With all due respect I would ask to brave high school teachers exactly what you teach them? Not only they do not know basic grammar and spelling, but also the history and literature are lost on them. Or rather, they seem lost when I refer to these topics. My own experience in high school may have been typical. We have read some classics, but the teacher does not in any sense to bring them alive (which requires both knowledge and effort) and my exposure was there, but my assessment was not. This is not due to poor equipment. The classics are timeless precisely because they speak across generations and history. In our current mania of the relevance of the education they can fill the bill so well taught. It could be the case that all five classic look you would do if taught in a way that engages students. In particular, engages their desire to learn more! That's what I think is really lacking a high school today in many secondary students, the desire to learn and passionate curiosity to achieve this desire. When I see many of them, they see me as an obstacle to a more just entering the world of work. A world in which they were led to believe does not require them to be informed about literature, history, science, economics, etc. I assume from your question that if you ask someone about has reduced the list about five to single digits a little more (probably less than 100). So, as I indicated above, a period of five to from a list of major works would do. Your list of five may be different from mine, but it probably reflects a similar value for timeless values we try to convey through the text. In any case, the argument I would stick to a list of classics. They can get a lot of contemporary reading on their own and their own inclinations. Open doors for them, they might otherwise never know existed. Promote their amazement and curiosity! These are the students that we want to college!