English teachers! How has teaching lit changed over the last 20-30 years?

Question

Looking at the homework questions the kids are asking on Y!A, I've been pleased to see that they're reading several books from the last half of the 20th century that I especially valued back when I read them. Flowers for Algernon and Ender's Game are the two that come to mind at the moment, but there were others from different fiction genres and from non-fiction as well.

It occurs to me that these newer books must be replacing some of the older so-called classics. When I went through American Lit in high school, I felt that many of the books we read were of value only in their historical context, not as thought-provoking works just on their own.

Anyway, I'm wondering which books you've seen go off the reading lists over the last 20-30 years, and how you feel about some of them being replaced, and about their replacements.

Answer 1

A misnomer in that English teachers necessarily teach literature, but that is OK, I understand your point.  Literature these days tends to be more modern from my perspective, not so much on the old readings when I attended high school.  That doesn't mean to say you still can't pick up a copy of "A Catcher in the Rye", but the focus or trend seems to be on things pertinent for the times.  I don't disagree with the philosophy of teaching new, but let us not forget what was important in the past.  As for books coming off the reading list, that is not widespread in all cases.  Each district and state actually have a say in what they will and will not allow as teaching material.  Good luck.