IS SHAKESPEARE MAKING OUR KIDS ILLITERATE?

• Author: Liebell, Donald
• Position: EDUCATION

IN THE INFORMATION AGE, where the global economy is knowledge-based, education is more important than ever. Despite a number of education reforms, U.S. academic performance remains mediocre. After graduation, more than one-third of high school and college students never read a book again for the rest of their lives.

Why do so many Americans hate to read? Perhaps a long-outdated academic tradition is the root cause. Teenagers are condemned to read the same classic literary fiction that has plagued several generations. Compelling them to navigate dull, dated, frustrating, and unintelligible novels sucks the joy out of reading. This consequently suppresses their love of learning--perhaps permanently.

We cannot afford to cling to an antiquated tradition that does not produce modern results. It is time to renovate public school English curricula. Antagonizing students by assigning books they hate never has made sense. If we replace the so-called classics with books to which students can relate, the U.S.'s abominable academic statistics just might rise.

For decades, we have endured the bellyaching that Americans lag behind many other countries academically. Yet, our educational system remains addicted to Beowulf, Romeo and Juliet, The Great Gatsby, Oliver Twist, and scores of other established novels that do not seem to produce superiorly-educated students. Classic literature has been given a free pass--it has been grandfathered into the system. The assumption that it is the best-suited means to developing children's reading and writing skills must be questioned and tested.

Imagine the enthusiasm kids would have for reading and learning if they were assigned books they actually found interesting and relevant?

Culture and art are profoundly important. However, literacy must not be predicated upon incurring the wrath of the prose of William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and members of the classic literature legion of doom. How many of us have fond memories of the novels we were required to read in school? Were these really effective teaching tools? Could past generations have excelled in life without studying the works of William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, John Steinbeck, or F. Scott Fitzgerald? My success as a doctor and abilities to write creatively, professionally, and academically hardly have been the product of begrudgingly being immersed in the drudgery of Homer or Geoffrey Chaucer. Seeing my own children suffering the same fiction fiasco was the last straw.

With the aid of feedback from children, adults, and educators, I formed...