Wolk Response

Wolk argues that when looking at what students are required to read in school in 2010, it might as well be 1960, because we are reading the same books, the same genres, and the same texts that were being red over 50 years ago. Though they may be wonderful classics, The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mocking Bird, The catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Romeo and Juliet, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Macbeth, Of Mice and Men, Hamlet, 1984, and The Things They Carried are older texts far removed from the interest of today’s modern adolescent students. More contemporary texts should be added to the cannon. As Wolk says, the world is “brimming with marvelous writing.” Along with a few of the classics, I would love to teach some of the more modern literature. Where ever I am given freedom to choose my texts, I going to choose challenging texts that I believe my students would be interested it. I’ll bring in some of my favorite McCarthy books—or the ones I know I can get away with teaching—The Road or The Sunset Limited. I can do a unit on political science or Marxism and teach The Hunger Games. I can do a unit on war texts and read Fallen Angels alongside diaries written from WWI, WWII, and Afghanistan soldiers. In short, I can bring in contemporary literature from multiple genres to incorporate rigor while facilitating excitement for reading.