This high school teacher in Chicago admits what so many (dare I say most) high school English teachers believe.  He’s talking about teaching the classics to uninterested students.

Of course, it is my responsibility as a teacher to engage the students in these classics so they can understand, analyze and appreciate the writings of our greatest thinkers. But I cannot. I have tried strategy after strategy, sought advice upon advice, and still, I am unable to spark sustainable interest in the vast majority of my students. Few students do the readings and even fewer seriously consider the ideas or themes presented in these writings. The class discussions are disgracefully unanimated and the student essays are dull, tedious and impersonal. For most students in my class, the months dedicated to the canons of Western literature are a dreadful waste of time. And yes, I know, this failure is mostly my fault.

Thus, instead of teaching Milton and Shakespeare and Dickens, he does what most teachers do: lets students read more recent literature (The Outsiders, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, etc.).  They are at least able to follow what’s happening in those stories.  Fair enough. 

But the question remains: Why are so many high school (and, frankly, college) English teachers incapable of getting students interested in the classics?  They are tougher to read, longer, more removed.  But I submit that teachers can’t get students engaged in the classics because the teachers aren’t engaged in the classics.  A passionate, well-informed lecture on Shakespeare, by a teacher who knows why it’s good stuff, can awaken entire rows of desks.  It’s just that, as a nation, our teachers are as uninspired by the classics as their students.  Even if they think they love Shakespeare, maybe they don’t.  My high school teacher liked Shakespeare, but she seemed to find him as boring as we did.  Which is why it was boring.  Somebody, please contradict me here.

If you stay up on education issues, you probably know the name Jonathan Kozol, author of a littany of books that seem to share the thesis that Public Education is Bad and It’s All Because of Racism. 

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We talk a lot here about education.  About reading.  About poetry.  About what’s wrong with students today.  About all that.  The teaching of literature to students will reveal much to a man, much about what’s wrong with the world, with kids today, and with what he thinks. 

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In a Times op-ed piece, Harry Mount will win much favor in the hearts and minds of homeschooling families and classical Christian educators.

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Most college students will soon be getting their fall term grades. The Ethicist at the Times gets letters from readers, looking for advice on ethical matters.  One reader recently wrote:

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