I’ve noticed that many new High School reading lists contain more and more relevant contemporary novels. Of course many of the best works were not even written when I was in school but it’s good to also see some emphasis still remains on the more traditional “Classics.”
Here are the 15 classics that are High School Must Reads:
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Farenheit 451
- Animal Farm
- The Great Gatsby
- Death of a Salesman
- East of Eden
- Romeo and Juliet
- 1984
- The Catcher In the Rye
- Lord of the Flies
- Of Mice and Men
- Brave New World
- Hiroshima
- Their Eyes Were Watching God
- In Cold Blood
In High School I think any required reading should add to the understanding of the world that the student can take with them for the rest of their life. But a novel such as The Catcher In the Rye does not qualify and should be replaced with something good, like The Dubliners or Absalom, Absalom! (where were Joyce and Faulkner on that list?).
It might also serve the students more to get a bit further from the Western Canon and remember there is a very large world out there and not just a bunch of old dead white men that speak the English language.
Any one else?
A Celebration of Reading 