By Sam Rimland
There is controversy whether students should be able to have a voice in required reading books for school in English class or not. Students should definitely have the right to have some input for reading in class, but their suggestions should be within reason. This brings up the question, what exactly does ‘within reason’ mean? My first thought when I hear those words is just explicit language and sexual situations. These are the usual things that may be concerning to schools, but with the increasing gap between ‘woke’ kids and their contrasting parents’ views, ‘within reason’ has a deeper meaning. Kids may suggest books including transgender or gay characters, and possibly books that include elements of critical race theory. Some parents, particularly white people, may be against these choices. They do not want their kids to learn of these things in fear of the characters somehow turning them gay. This is a ridiculous claim as these people are ignorant to the fact that attraction is not a choice. Crazy or not, these restrictions would add another limitation on student suggestions.
There are many other disadvantages to students having a say in required reading. Books are chosen to be read in school for a reason; the books may contain an important lesson or could be ingrained into the curriculum. It would be difficult for teachers to suddenly uproot everything that has been taught in the past, and it would be a complete hassle to change lesson plans for the future. A possible solution would be for students to suggest books, and they go through a process to be chosen, and then chosen books could be integrated into the curriculum during the summer. This creates the problem as administrators are adding yet another thing to their to-do lists, and it just does not seem like a reasonable choice. Some books may be boring or outdated, but it would be difficult to change anything. On the contrary, a positive would be that more students would be inclined to read. Students would rather read the fun action series, The Hunger Games, over some old book like Lord of the Flies. Although Lord of the Flies is a classic and contains values that could be made into lessons, most students just sparknotes it and fake their way through whatever essays or discussions we have. I have seen it firsthand as many people that I have talked to have admitted to not reading most of the books required for school. The important lessons of the required books are meaningless if none of the students are willing to learn.
I propose something that could solve this issue of boredom and unengaged students that has been going on for years. There could be a committee with both administrators and students in order to gauge everyone’s opinion on certain books. This would help add books that are educational while being relatively fun. A book like this would be the Trevor Noah autobiography that students read in sophomore year. It was a fun book to read while also teaching students about the apartheid. Students were more inclined to read as Trevor Noah wrote about funny anecdotes, such as when some big, daunting guy in Noah’s holding cell ended up being a sweetheart after he got to know him. They only connected due to Noah’s expansive knowledge of African languages, which was also able to lead students into deep analysis about the importance. See, you could tell I read the book. The point is that it is a difficult process with all of the restrictions and preparation, but students need to learn from books that they are interested in. If students do not read the required books that are taught in class, then what are they really learning from these books that were deemed so important.
