Texting Shakespeare

My niece just bought a book about how to successfully discuss books you've never read. Not a bad concept, albeit a little scary. However, since I made it through a Twain, Howells and James course in grad school while only reading Twain, I can't be too high and mighty.

She's reacting to a reading list forced on her this summer, and I have to agree with her on some of the choices. What kid wants to read Great Expectations? I really like Dickens and even I don't want to read Great Expectations. And really, what angst-ridden teenager should read Romeo and Juliet without proper supervision? Someone should be standing close by to say, "Look, Romeo is a real jerk."

I'm a huge fan of literature. I think kids should read literature and be exposed to many different kinds, but I'm against turning them off the classics because of some archaic list of "must reads". Just because high school freshmen have read Romeo and Juliet for a hundred thousand years doesn't make it a good choice.

I'd love to not sound like an old fart with this next point, but there's no way round it -- with the instant gratification of the internet and texting, kids have even less patience and attention span than before. My niece complained about The Odyssey, and on that I had to disagree because it's not only a great story, but the basis of so much that came after. "OK," she said, "but couldn't they summarize it?"

Yikes!