Classics: Timeless or Times Up?
Reading a variety of novels, from all areas and time periods, has become something I greatly enjoy. I read all sorts so that I can be knowledgable in many areas, and be consistently learning. However, there are many books that present issues within the classroom, some for students and their parents, and others for teachers, even though they are books approved for the classroom.
So. Let’s talk classics.
Timeless or Times Up?
Classics are always interesting books in the teaching world. Don’t get me wrong – I love them. But I’ve always found it so intriguing how only certain classics receive pushback from parents, while the majority of them are suitable to be studied in a classroom. There are many classics that are “tried and true” that anyone will trust without reading it, or knowing anything about it. However, most classics have language or circumstances that parents might not like their child reading, but because they’ve stood the test of time, they aren’t questioned. For example, two novels I have taught at the high school level were Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird. They depict a time in the world that so many people fought to overcome, but remains important to remember. Why? Because without the ability to remember what advances we fought for, our species runs the risk of repeating the past.
While parents don’t really push back against well-known titles, classics like these bring controversy for teachers within the classroom. Words that would never be written in novels of today were used consistently back then. However, it’s important to know that most timeless classics were written to point out flaws that existed in society at the time – not to promote them. As teachers, it is critical to understand this when teaching the material.
It is for these reasons that Jim is the hero at the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and that the death of Tom in To Kill a Mockingbird leaves every reader in a state of deep sorrow. Despite this, most people who read and/or teach these texts today believe that they are outdated – their purpose no longer exists and their time is up. The context behind the pieces isn’t fully understood and this results in them being discarded. The value of a classic is questioned in favor of a more modern text that is easier to understand.
Relevancy
As people, we must do our best not to get so caught up in the surface-level content within a book so that we can truly grasp the author’s intent behind it. This goes for both classic and contemporary works. Regardless of how much our society has changed from where we existed in the past, the past deserves to be remembered. Without remembrance, we invalidate those experiences. Without remembrance, we forget and repeat. Without remembrance, we lose knowledge of and appreciation for how much we’ve grown as a society. More than this, though, understanding the author’s intent behind a piece allows us to be transported into a time we’ve never lived; it allows us to understand events of history; and it allows us to develop an appreciation for the current world in which we live.
I am also amazed sometimes at the focus in which society takes with certain texts. In the two texts I mentioned, language is the biggest controversial issue discussed, and is the primary reason why it should no longer be taught.
Focusing on this one issue means so many others issues presented are ignored: child neglect, child abuse, growing up without a parent(s), and many more. These issues deserve to be addressed as well, as I see them everywhere in the lives of students today.
This doesn’t mean the language is appropriate. Please don’t twist my words. But there are numerous lessons that lie within the pages of every book, and they all serve a purpose on some level. And maybe if we focused less on the language used in a text and more on the purpose behind that language, people would truly understand how great Atticus was as a father, and the beautiful friendship that existed between Jim and Huck, who had no one to raise him with their preconceived ideals.
Timeless Change
So what can we do to create change now? If you haven’t read a text, the simple answer is to read it. Don’t just do a google search and call it good. Anyone can post on the internet and voice opinions based on nothing. Take the time to read the text and develop your own opinion. Do your own research. Then you will know if the piece is truly something to be avoided or admired. In a world full of the technological advances that we have, it is so easy to rely on others to provide us with the information we think we need without doing any work on our own. This is becoming a more prevalent issue and the result is that we say an awful lot about things we know very little about.
You don’t have to like the writing style of every author – I certainly don’t. But that doesn’t mean I avoid teaching it if the curriculum requires it, nor do I focus on my own feelings, but instead, I try to understand the author’s.
So don’t write off a text because the internet says it is bad. Don’t write off a text because of the language. Figure out what the author is truly saying and how the book was received in the time period in which it was created. Then make your decision on whether to discard a novel or keep it around.
