After reading chapter 3 of Curriculum 21, I started thinking about high school curriculum (which frankly, I've never done). My daughter, Michaela, entered 9th grade this past year and along with it came freshman English. Michaela absolutely LOVES to read. When you ask people about her, they automatically say, "book", or "reads all the time". Freshman English though did nothing to foster her love of reading. Why are some schools (teachers?) still stuck in past practices of reading old literature that kids struggle through? And yes, everyone in this class HAS to be reading the same book. So, she read The Odyssey and wrote essays in response, she read A Separate Peace and wrote essays....and hated them and the activities that went along with them.
Curriculum 21 suggests reading a book that has a movie. Kids do this all the time. There are so many great pieces of current literature out there that have a movie out. Wouldn't this be a better use of a freshman's time? Doing something they would be doing anyway in the real world? Giving students choice in what they read would provide so much more investment on their part. Plus maybe get some reluctant readers going in the reading department. I'm quite certain The Odyssey did not hook any reluctant readers into picking up books in their spare time.
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