Why read "literature"?

To Kill a Mockingbird and Huckleberry Finn to be dropped from Duluth area classes because of ‘uncomfortable atmosphere’ their use of racial slurs creates. The Guardian, Feb 12, 2018

Why do we have kids to read "literature?" As a former English teacher and librarian, you'd think I'd have this figured out by now. But I don't.

I am certainly a proponent of reading -  for recreation, for knowledge acquisition, for gaining an understanding of current events, for learning how to complete a task.

But reading the classics? 

I've been pretty tough on math teachers, often expressing that time spent learning algebra and trig would be better spent on more practical math applications rooted in the real world. On of my favorite t-shirt reads "Well, another day has passed and I didn’t use algebra once."

My math friends could easily counter, "Gee, how did you use what you learned reading Antigone or Macbeth or Old Man and the Sea today?"

Is reading literature the equivalent of studying fine art, listening to classical music, watching ballet? Is it a nice extra for those who appreciate such things?

Probably the primary reason it has been my mission to get kids reading fiction is that it is one of the best ways to hone the ability to view other people and situations empathetically. In an old column "Building Capacity for Empathy" 2009, I wrote:

Reading fiction - especially when the setting is another culture, another time - has to be the best means of building empathic sensibilities. How do you understand prejudice if you are not of a group subject to discrimination? How do you know the problems faced by gays if you are straight? How does it feel to be hungry, orphaned, or terrified when you’ve always lived a middle-class life? By harnessing the detail, drama, emotion, and immediacy of “story,” fiction informs the heart as well as the mind. And it is the heart that causes the mind to empathize. 

So for me, the question of whether we ask kids to read literature and what titles we place in our curricula boils down to which works best build empathy. Are Huck and Jim, Scout and Tom characters who resonate with today's kids? Do the problems they face or the questions they try to answer still remain in today's society? Or do characters in books set in more contemporary times and places help kids more easily slip into another's shoes?

Do we wistfully let Twain and Lee slip into the hallowed historical archives of Debussy and Shakespeare and Rembrandt? 

Comments

[Esther]

I certainly agree that literature is a crucial tool for building empathy, but beyond that "classics" can teach us about history and reveal why the world is the the way it is today. I recently led multi-media learning stations in my library for To Kill a Mockingbird, which focussed on the time the book is set in and the time it would have been published. Students watched videos, read primary documents, listened to interviews, and viewed art work that taught them about the US during the depression, the roots of segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and the response to it all during the Civil Rights movement in the 60s. Many of the resources I used came from Facing History and Ourselves https://www.facinghistory.org/ ."Through rigorous historical analysis combined with the study of human behavior, Facing History’s approach heightens students’ understanding of racism, religious intolerance, and prejudice; increases students’ ability to relate history to their own lives; and promotes greater understanding of their roles and responsibilities in a democracy." We are who we are because of those who have come before us; building empathy cannot be limited to the present but must include the past and often the art of the time is one of the best revelations of an era.

[Doug Johnson]

HI Esther,

I genuinely appreciate you adding this comment to my post. As a huge fan of historical fiction, I completely agree that literature and history are complimentary and that we can learn the values of the time by reading the authors of the time. You make great points!

Doug