Most of the time, I maintain a calm manner in front of my children to avoid their complete mortification of their mother. All bets were off, though, when my daughter informed me her sixth grade class was reading “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Hopping off the kitchen stool, I pumped my fist in the air and yelled “Yes!” so loud the dog scurried beneath the table.
My kids just smiled, nodding knowingly what would follow.
I edited my soapbox speech — this was an audience familiar with my topic, after all — choosing, instead, to hit the highlights as to why our public schools should integrate more literary classics into the curriculum.
You see, I noted waving a spatula, only a handful of timeless classics have been assigned to my children throughout their school careers. And, lest anyone in the kitchen or elsewhere think teachers created this omission, let me be clear: They did not. This issue has less to do with the instructional preferences of our underpaid and overstandardized-tested teachers and more to do with a noble intention gone somewhat astray.
The problem stems, in large part, from an admirable notion: foster a love of reading at an early age. Several years ago, Florida’s Department of Education, in tandem with the state’s media services specialists, came up with a reading program known as the Sunshine State Young Reader’s Award Program, to “encourage students to read independently, for personal satisfaction, based on interest rather than reading level.”
So far, so good.
The SSYRAP selects contemporary literature with “wide appeal, literary value, varied genres, curriculum connections and/or multicultural representation.”
OK, I get that.
Missing from the annual recommended list, however, are literary classics. I understand the value of relating to a less-than-enthusiastic reader with contemporary subject matter. Indeed, our family has read every Sunshine State book since the program’s inception.
We loved reading Kate DiCamillo’s “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Toulane”, a tale about human frailties, life and exploration. But why not “Treasure Island,” too? And Louis Sachar’s “Holes,” another Sunshine State-program book, kept us turning pages until the very end. But so did “The Secret Garden,” another classic on the list, whose mysterious place offers life-revealing lessons.
I’m an advocate of the Sunshine State program. I just wish one or two classics would make the list each year. Because, once you squeeze in this group’s recommended readings, plus FCAT-required reading and writing assignments, plus countywide demand writing, well, there’s little time left to snuggle up in a school chair with “The Hobbit.”
Oh, and one more thing, the ranting columnist says as she places the battered spatula down on the counter: Why aren’t most of our middle school students, not just a few selected classes, assigned Mark Twain’s great novel?
Ah, but that’s another soapbox for another day.
Time to start reading. Tom just found an empty seat next to Becky Thatcher. This is gonna be good.
