The "Classics"

AP English

Monthly Blog

The “classics”

What makes something a classic? Our society considers so many things classic, from classical music, to classic cars, to classic attitudes, to classic behaviors, to classic phrases, to classic books. The dictionary definition of classic is=-

clas·sic/ˈklasik/

Adjective:	Judged over a period of time to be of the highest quality and outstanding of its kind.
Noun:	A work of art of recognized and established value.
Synonyms:	classical - standard

What I specifically want to speak about is classic books that schools make children read. Lets be honest for a moment, how many classic books are enjoyable to read? Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, To Kill A Mocking Bird, The Scarlet letter, The Importance Of Being Earnest!?... Really? Yes, all of these books may teach a valuable lesson, or be written with considerable skill, I will admit I don’t think I could write a book or novel that would match any of these in anything except entertainment value. That isn’t what I am arguing, I am simply arguing that these books are neither enjoyable or practical to make people read. Supposedly they are classics because they have themes that still apply today or include universal constants that apply to our lives. Have you ever realized that they may apply to our lives because we see these “constants” every day? We don't need some dry academic book to show them to us. Plus these books hardly show anything that is very profound. To Kill A Mockingbird's main theme is good vs. evil.... I’m pretty sure this theme is expressed in a million other books, movies, and plays. Trust me, for I am speaking from experience, it is not a profound or highly informative book. So couldn't we read an enjoyable book that explores the same themes and gives the same messages? I don't understand how a group of people can make such dry and uninteresting books mandatory or highly recommended for schools across the nation. I think, perhaps, that group psychology may have come into play here. I think in the beginning, like decades ago, when book lists where being made for schools, these books where at the forefront of people brains, being at least somewhat recently written, and excellent works for their time. Then whomever was deciding which books should be read, joined a sort of bandwagon, that has ever since kept school reading books the same. Only adding fresh books when forced, or when they find an equally uninteresting or out of date book. One of the reasons that people, specifically younger generations, don’t enjoy reading could be a result of these “book lists”. On a grander scale this could be the source of many other problems, like unemployment, or our country falling behind the rest of the world. This is because when people where in school they were forced to read horrible books, which inspired them to despise learning and reading, meaning they don’t want to work for anything. This could be a major reason that our country is becoming dumber by the second. There are plenty of books that won’t bore kids to death, but will also teach important lessons and values. We simply need to find this line and select new books so that kids of the future may have a joy or need for learning and reading. With internet and all the technological revolutions that are occurring at what seems like a mile a minute, there is less and less reason to read. Reading develops important parts of your brain, and can give children a head start and a thirst for knowledge that can drive them throughout their lives.