As an English teacher, I'm fortunate in that I have more options concerning what types of written material I can incorporate into my classroom. While I may have a textbook for terms and concepts needed to understand certain aspects of literature, it's much easier for me to incorporate works of fiction into a lesson than it would be for a math or science teacher. Isn't that one reason why students enjoy English class? They have an opportunity to be exposed to lively works of literature, a much needed escape from the typical drudgery of reading a textbook. With that said, there are still issues concerning the type of literature is that a used in an English class. For the most part, the "classic" works of fiction that students in the 1960s were exposed to are the same works that students 50 years later are assigned to read. This a problem. Chapter 4 of Subject Matters discusses this issue using the example of a recommended books list for middle and high school students: "Of the 60 authors on the list . . . 56 are dead, 40 are (or rather, were) males and 52 are of European descent" (56). How, then, can the culturally diverse students of the 21st century relate to these authors. I think we can all agree that Charles Dickens didn't have the modern day student in mind while writing Great Expectations. Maybe it's time to adapt the content to the student.
While Dickens' novel is a classic piece of literature, why, exactly, is Great Expectations still being used today? The fact that it is a "classic" novel isn't good enough. If it is being used to present an example of a theme, in this case social classes and the conflicts that arise because of them, the case can be made that other, more modern novels, can be used for the same purpose. You will find that today's Adolescent Literature contains the same themes found in many "classics," yet they're written for the soul purpose of being more accessible to the teenage reader. For instance, if my goal is to teach a unit about the role of class in literature, I could use Mary Hooper's novel Newes From The Dead, a story about a young housemaid who is the victim of injustice due to her lower-class standing. Am I suggesting that we do away with novels like Great Expectations? No. But we should be more conscious of the type of material we present to our students.
For anyone who is interested, http://www.adlit.org/ has some great resources that can be used in the classroom.
I suppose this is a question of what education is for. I think you'll find that you are on the side of teaching students valuable skills that will help them to build the future but I think there is another side. I think there is a more primal role in education that is teaching the student about what came before, about keeping alive past works. I think that's why I'm often in favor of teaching older texts simply because I think its important to keep the treasures of the past in the minds of our young who will bring those works with them. I agree I think we need teach more relevant and modern works as well, and maybe even more than the classics but I think there needs to be room for the classics to remain. I find myself worrying that if we don't teach them they'll just be lost to us.
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