Genre Fiction

I think any person in the school would agree to read genre fiction, the freedom to read what you want, over literary fiction any day of the week because it would engage more students into reading. That’s what genre fiction is, it’s the freedom to read what intrigues you. But I do get why we still have curriculums where classic literary novels are taught because it helps restore the organization of what these English classes are looking to accomplish. From a school stand point it is obvious that the curriculum of the major subjects is based upon standardized testing and check points, rather than the value of learning for relevant knowledge. If teachers taught genre fiction, and in turn allowed students to read novels that they are interested in with more freedom, then there would be no order in their objective. Now I’m not bashing all teachers and our school because a majority of the teachers understand their role in teaching us young adults the value of learning and do a good job at it, but of course there’s always going to be the teachers that do the complete opposite of that. I don’t believe the curriculum will ever change in terms of what books are being taught, I personally wish they would, but it probably would never happen because it would be too hard to contain the school’s mission of learning. I do respect why we read Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mocking Bird and Catcher in the Rye, because they are classic novels that provide great human value/ historical value. Those were the only three books that I enjoyed, so it is a little curved, but you get my point. “Tomorrow you will be able to choose any novel that has come out in 2011 and read through it with no note taking and no quizzes. Just enjoy the book, dive into the book and take as long as you want to read it. Enjoy it to the greatest extent.” We all wish our teachers would blurt that out one day in class but due to our school, that probably won’t happen.