Hamlet, The Great Gatsby, The Odyssey— these are all well-known books often read in high school English classes across the country. While these books can teach valuable lessons and provide thrilling stories, many students often fail to realize why they read these books. It may not just be the classics either, but all of the books students read within their English classes. Even when understanding why a book is read, students, and even teachers, may dislike certain texts. AGHS students and staff aren’t any different.
The 8 English classes at AGHS all incorporate assigned reading. Some students question the validity of some of the books that teachers assign.
“I didn’t understand why we were reading [The Bell Jar],” Ella Payne (‘25) said. “I couldn’t think of much of a broader significance for [the book].”
Many students share this problem. With the variety of English classes at AGHS, the point of specific texts becomes even more blurred, as each class has a different goal. AP classes specifically struggle from this issue due to the difficulty of its texts, sometimes leading to students not reading the books.
“[The amount of students reading the books] is probably 50%,” AP Language teacher Amber Derbidge said.
The reading within AP classes is often more independent, which increases the likelihood that a student fails to understand the point of reading the text. On the other hand, AP classes have a more obvious goal or objective for the class, such as AP Lang being focused on rhetoric, or AP Lit being focused on the understanding of literature. AP classes also share the goal of preparing for the AP test.
“Like all of the books I select, I try to choose titles that can make themselves available to a number of different prompts [on the AP exam],” AP Literature teacher Christian Holst said. “I try to select books that can appeal to everybody in my class.”
Understanding a text is vastly easier when one is able to form some connection to the book. Forming these connections with the text can be more difficult with the advanced nature of AP titles.
“[Wuthering Heights] was really confusing,” Payne said. “I had no idea what was going on.”
While some students have difficulty forming connections with certain texts within AP classes, students still can take away some value in a book’s assistance in preparing for exams. The same simple goal isn’t as clear in general education classes. Connection to the text is important for relevancy.
“It’s nice to have books from different backgrounds, with more diversity, so people can connect to the characters,” English 10 teacher Brittany Short said.
Connection to the books is vital to both keeping the attention of students and to understanding a text. Maintaining this connection, especially with Gen-Ed classes, can be difficult.
“Everyone is at a different [reading] level,” Short said. “Everyone has different needs, interests, [and] ways that they learn.”
Diversity in reading material is important. The more diversity there is among authors and topics, the more people a book is able to reach.
“The books we’ve been reading have only been about other cultures,” English 10 student Noah Ibarra (‘27) said. “While yes, diversity is important, it’s not diverse if [the books aren’t] talking about other topics as well.”
It’s impossible to find books that connect to all readers, especially ones that focus on cultures besides their own. While understanding other cultures is very important, it isn’t the only purpose for books. The district mandates specific texts for both AP and Gen-Ed classes within each grade. These books are assigned mainly to educate students on literature that is important in modern culture. These mandated texts, while important, can be difficult to fit into class.
“Hamlet is a challenge. Shakespeare is difficult to read for most people,” expository reading and writing curriculum (ERWC) teacher Stephanie Hoover said. “But it’s worth having that cultural literacy.”
Texts such as Hamlet—while not always fitting into class curriculum or level—are important to learn as they are prevalent throughout modern culture. They educate students on how culture has evolved and where it came from. These texts, and all of the texts within both AP and Gen-Ed, strengthen the foundations of reading, writing, and speaking skills, which is the primary goal of an English class. These skills are the baseline for surviving in modern culture.
The texts taught within AGHS are plentiful, and, while at points may seem to lack purpose, work towards the ultimate goal of preparing students for functioning in the adult world and improving their skills in English. Not all schools go as far to work towards this goal either.
In a recent New York Post article, Columbia University humanities professor Nicholas Dames described his surprise when learning that one of his students hadn’t read a full book at her public school. New York Post’s research found that in an EdWeek Research Center survey of about 300 third- to eighth-grade educators found “only 17 percent said they primarily teach whole texts,” with nearly 25 percent saying whole books themselves are no longer the focus in their curriculum. New York Post’s research suggests that students not wanting to read isn’t the problem, but rather that schools aren’t making them.
Reading full length books in class is slowly becoming less common. This slow decline in reading is exactly why it’s so important that schools continue teaching literature, as maintaining an understanding of modern culture is vital to literacy.
Overall, many books taught at AGHS, or any school for that matter, may seem unnecessary at some points, but they have various uses such as assisting in preparation for advanced classes, exploring various other cultures, promoting diversity, and strengthening the basic skills of English.
