Reading literature in education may be on the way out. It is one of the many previous foundational skills that have been thrown aside to find a place for all the additional science, math and technology that a “competitive” county needs in this world’s economy. In a recent discussion with English teachers I found many who thought there was no problem with exposing secondary students to works written only in the last fifty years or less. Some preferred an even more recent time frame and choose nonfiction or new popular novels to give students books that they found easier to read. They were willing to give students assignments that didn’t require analysis because the author basically told the story.

What do we have to lose when we no longer require students to read works that are not easily read but have withstood the test of time? Perhaps we will be…