Keywords
secondary English teachers, adolescent literature, cultural literacy, literary classics, literary texts
Submission Type
Research
Preview
It is no secret that 21st Century adolescents are reading less than their parents and grandparents did. Because modern technology has tapped into teens’ craving for color, action, and sound, books have a hard time competing with the X-box and the Wii. The “gotta have it quick and easy” attitude of today’s teens and young adults seems to make reading anything of substance, involving depth of thought or processing time, a pastime gone the way of wringer washers and push mowers.
So how do secondary English teachers who want their students to read tap into the insatiable appetite teens have for high-paced, high-intensity, highly sensory options available today? Too many are teaching a steady diet of adolescent literature and totally disregarding any literature that was written more than ten years ago. However, eliminating the classics from the curriculum diminishes students’ “college and career readiness,” as emphasized in the Utah Core State Standards (Utah Office of Education, 2012), and puts these students at a disadvantage when it comes to “cultural literacy” (Hirsch, 1987).
Recommended Citation
Wallace, Lorraine
(2012)
"Today's Kids Need the Classics Too,"
The Utah English Journal: Vol. 40, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/uej/vol40/iss1/6