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[quote=Anonymous]I'm one of those "was an avid reader as a teen" people for whom I think this approach would have been a problem.   I didn't like all the texts I read in high school English (I did, however, read them all - I think the only one I didn't finish in four years was Red Badge of Courage).  But I did think it was valuable to have assigned texts with some support - I wasn't the type of kid who would have picked up, say, 100 Years of Solitude on my own.  I would have been intimidated by the length and reputation and writing style. But it was really valuable to me to have read it and to have the in-class discussion as a guide to getting through it.  And then later, I did read more Marquez on my own.  But if just asked to choose a book in high school by a Latin American author (or whatever the prompt would be)?  That wouldn't have been my choice; something much simpler would be.

Similarly, there's a lot of value, IMO, to being able to discuss critiques of works and the like as a whole group.  We never read TKAM in school - so fine, skip it.  But, for instance, we read Heart of Darkness.  Then we read and discussed Chinua Achebe's critique of Heart of Darkness, which obviously stuck with me since I'm posting about it 20 years later - if some kid had decided to read Heart of Darkness on their own, and nobody else had read it, and maybe you hadn't read it, or hadn't read it recently, how can you get into in depth critiques like that?  Or social context - I absolutely loved Jane Austen (still do) and probably would have chosen to read her books if given a choice.  But having a teacher there who had also read all her letters and historical stuff about the period and who could talk about things like what the entailment meant in the context of the book added depth I wouldn't have gotten on my own. 
 
As an adult, I've found a lot of value in book clubs for the same reason as all of this - it challenges me to read stuff I wouldn't have picked up on my own and gives me a chance to talk about a single work with other people who have thought about it and maybe read other things about it than I have.

I'm also now a lawyer, so being able to take dense texts and argue my position about them is basically the foundation of my work.  Again, just picking and having broad conversations about themes?  I don't think that would have gotten me to the point of being able to do my job the way I can.  A more traditional curriculum really helped, though.  I'm not saying there's no place for choice - but I do think there are lessons you can learn from assigned reading. [/quote]

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