Reply to Why, oh why, do the schools still ask students to read so much fiction?

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[quote=Anonymous]New poster. I know this is not going to be popular, but I sort of agree with OP.  No, I'm not suggesting schools eliminate all fiction books, nor do I discourage my own children from reading fiction.  But I do think schools spend a lot of time teaching "classics" that are great books, but not really so relevant.  Yes, keep Shakespeare and all the mythology, because those run so heavily though all of our culture.  But do students really need to read books like Scarlet Letter, Catcher in the Rye, etc?  I consider those lesser classics.  Also, there are tons of amazing non-fiction books too, covering not just history but science, psychology, economics, and technology.  It seems a teacher/school could replace some of those fiction works with great non-fiction books, and make the lessons better.  I suspect however that most literature teachers are former literature majors (like me), so they are more familiar with the fiction world, and not as adept with non-fiction.

I think lots of people are pushing OP into a strawman argument, claiming she wants to entirely eliminate all fiction, and by extension all imagination.  I don't think that's a fair reading of what she proposes.[/quote]

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