r/AskReddit • u/Crazzul • 1h ago
If you were in charge of required high school reading, what is one book you would assign?
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u/MsPandaLady 1h ago
One of my favorite books in high school and I think is very relevant in today's world, House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
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u/Crazzul 1h ago
Lol I read that in 5th grade, and I loved it! Then used it for Accelerated Reader points in middle school. It wasn't until I was older that I realized I was wayyyyyyy too young for the school library to have furnished me with that, but alas
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u/MsPandaLady 1h ago
Haha yeah it was a relatively new book, I think came out in 02, when I was a freshmen in 04 and it was our first assigned reading in English lit
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u/D45ers 1h ago
I know it’s not high school cuz I think we read it in 6th grade idk. Maybe 7th?
But Hatchet was a book I remember really enjoying as a kid
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u/Crazzul 1h ago
Hatchet and My Side of the Mountain were books my 4th grade teacher read us. Former Boy Scout troop leader, amazing painter, and insanely cool guy- still is. Because of how infatuated we were with My Side of the Mountain he took up falconry to get a red tail hawk and show it to the class, and that was in 2007. He is now one of the "master" falconers in the state
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u/D45ers 49m ago
Damn I definitely didn’t read hatchet till 6th grade the earliest lmao but that’s AZ education for you. I was actually a good reader and writer tho. Super mathematically challenged tho. Terribly.
I never read my side of the mountain tho. Yiu liked it or no?
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u/Crazzul 48m ago
It's great! It's more "voluntary" than Hatchet, no plane wreck, just a willing runaway, but same idea. Same fantasy of survivalism.
If you want the "adult" concept of survivalism and how it can go wrong, read Jack London's To Build a Fire. 17 pages long, and horrifying. Also free!
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u/D45ers 45m ago
17 pages? Lol I mean I’ll read it but damn
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u/Crazzul 43m ago
16 or 17, somewhere around there. It's a short story. But as someone who is an AVID member of the extreme horror/splatterpunk community, who has seen scores of horror films, read horror mangas and loves Ito, loves horror games- that story is in my top 5 most "keeps me awake at night" of any horror media.
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u/DrunkNigelShort 29m ago
I wouldn’t! I would provide a big list of books of varying genres, difficulties, and other characteristics, with quick blurbs saying why someone might like to read them. Every student would be allowed to read the book of their choice, and they could even add to the list if they provide their own blurb on why it would be a good choice. When it came time to write on them the assignments would be short and guided, and they’d get feedback on how to improve their writing before they ever got a grade. Stupid ideas like this are why no one would ever let me be a teacher.
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u/Crazzul 1h ago edited 54m ago
For me, it will forever be Johnny Got His Gun
Edit: Night by Wiesel was required for me in High School and I think it should be for everyone.
Beyond that, The Plague by Camus is on the list, especially post Covid. The Stranger is, in my opinion, a bit too vague and meta for the absurdism to land at that age
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u/Thegr8fan 1h ago
Treasure island
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u/Crazzul 1h ago
I feel like that's more of like 6-8th grade material; though the short story To Build A Fire by him is def good for later teens to read
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u/Thegr8fan 46m ago
Evidently you haven’t seen the latest reports of the reading ability/ grade level of graduating high schoolers. I personally know a current high school class reading Beowulf as a comic book complete with colorized illustrations, not joking.
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u/Crazzul 44m ago
I am aware it is bleak; but I feel that merits us pushing harder while we still can. Though the issue starts far, far before.
Evidently "modern" common core theory in America utilizes this weird mentality towards teaching to read that neglects "sounding it out" and teaching reading via sound and phonemes, which has been a disaster
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u/Thegr8fan 40m ago
Nice to know we share a common opinion …. It’s very bleak. And yes, at one time I’d agree that it would be a 6-8th grade reading assignment. But in today’s times I’d say high school seems to be more appropriate, unfortunately. Whatever happened to summer reading programs? 😳
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u/Crazzul 37m ago
There are a lot of political pieces to pick apart to that question; and I was also very privileged (note: not financially, whatsoever), but my grandma was/is a retired pre K teacher. She read to me and my cousin every weekend when we spent the night, and as we got older, she would up the ante. She read us the diary of Anne Frank and related literature when we were around 12. And would talk us through the darkness of it, and why we needed to know it.
But it isn't lost on me that most children don't have that.
I do think at that age, though, the literature you have to grapple with should be at least somewhat darker. I read Lord of the Flies in middle school but maybe that is now appropriate in High School?
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u/onemanonecat 1h ago
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
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u/Crazzul 1h ago
Yeah, no, I'm not terribly religious myself by any means and have read scores and scores of religious and scientific literature, but I don't think this falls under benevolent mandatory reading. The inverse is also true. It's healthier to allow young adults to explore these concepts as they discover them and reach their own conclusion, forcing either extreme on them is icky
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u/StrictlyForTheBirds 1h ago
1984