As someone with a degree in English and four children, I wholeheartedly agree. Exploring classic literature is great, but it doesn’t interest everyone. If we want kids to enjoy reading, then we should help them find books that do interest them, regardless of the genre.
Today I ran across an article about how Shakespeare is required in school whether or not kids have any interest in it all.
Then I ran across a summer reading program where they are paying kids to read. Kids read the books, write a report and send it in, then receive a check for up to 40.00 for their efforts. They can repeat this as often as they want throughout the summer. The catch, they have to read books on the list offered by the site who is doing this.
Then I ran across a post on Facebook about eating what you’re told when you’re a kid.
All of it started to connect in my mind and it bothered me. By forcing kids to read the books we think are classics (who the hell decided they were classics in the first place?), by forcing them to read from a strict…
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