Anonymous
03/06/2026 11:29
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ones we’ve heard of and read? Ones that are more than 10-20 years old?
I don’t think my all-honors senior has read more than a couple books I’ve heard of, and even those were ones she chose from a school list, not books assigned to the whole class.
Barely ! It seems that pretty much every book they read is about the story of a slave, the story of a boy during the civil rights movement, the story of a trans kid, the story of a gay kid, ...
Before everyone comes with guns blazing, I am a liberal, not MAGA, and encourage my kids to read such books but I ALSO want them to read the classics. Why can't we just have a happy medium?! Read some of these books in addition to Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, ...
This! All the book selections (and there are not many full books assigned period) are of the themes above. Add in something about recent immigrants/refugees and someone with mental illness
Anonymous
03/06/2026 11:22
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
I had one go through MCPS and another MCPS to Catholic HS. Neither read Diary of Anne Frank, To Kill A Mockingbird, Gatsby or really any of the classics and it makes me incensed.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 11:18
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:and this is HS? We read that in MS.Anonymous wrote:Yes, and I love it. Lord of the Flies and Gatsby coming soon.
DP. To be fair, I don’t think the average middle schooler has ever really been ready to grasp Gatsby.
Agreed. I read it in HS (and loved it) but was really surprised by how differently I understood it when I reread it as an adult. No way would I have really gotten it as a middle schooler.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 11:09
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They aren’t, not really. Public high school, in AP english lang. They have literally read zero full books yet. They had to pick two off a long list, not really classics. A mix. But they haven’t even had to red them yet- its March
AP Lang is intended to be focused on shorter texts with the purpose to understand the authors purpose in the writing and why they used the stylistic choices they did. Reading the classics would not be very good for this. In AP Lit a lot more classics are read. So far we have read Macbeth, Song of Solomon, Frankenstein, Madea, Oedipus Rex, and our next unit is the choice of any classic book. This is a large public highschool in dc.
They read one book in all of honors 11 English- Beowulf. Honors 9 and 10 had a couple more, but not more than 2-3 books for the whole year and not classics, except a Shakespeare play
Yes because it is meant to somewhat mimic what kids learn in AP lang. At least at my school so they are reading less classics and are focused more on short texts
I don’t get it, are you defending this poor excuse for public education?
As a public school student the education I have gotten from my english classes has been not poor at all. As a freshman we read around 2 books a term. Sophmore year we did about 1 a term but they were much longer and we learned how to write analytical essays. Junior year I took AP lang which teaches you about important things in writing such as syntax, diction, different writing styles/purposes, figuartive language, and more. This though comes at the cost of long texts because it is simply not realistic to read the classics and learn about all of the different writing components. Despite this we still managed to read four books. Now senior year in AP Lit we have read multiple classics, greek tradgedies, modern literature, and shakespeare. If you think the standard for an English class is solely reading the classics then yeah I guess it would be a poor education but the main purpose is to teach students how to read and write like a scholar. Which is what English 3 and AP Lang mainly focus on and then after you are able to do so you can then read the classics and understad and write about them in a more complex manner.
Get off DCUM. Go back to class and do your work
Anonymous
03/06/2026 11:06
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
My daughter read the following in Honors English 9:
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
The Odyssey
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Night
Honors English 10:
The Jungle, Try to Remember by Iris Gomez, Anthem, Catcher in the Rye, Julius Caesar, The Scarlet Letter, Johnny Got His Gun, The Great Gatsby.
No full length novels in AP Lang. In fact, it says that in the coursebook: no novels are read in class- we read a good deal of short non-fiction writing, analyze speeches, and arguments, and choose a columnist to follow throughout the duration of the class.
I think it has been a good mix.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
Make Lemonade by Virginia Euwer Wolff
The Odyssey
Of Mice and Men
To Kill a Mockingbird
Night
Honors English 10:
The Jungle, Try to Remember by Iris Gomez, Anthem, Catcher in the Rye, Julius Caesar, The Scarlet Letter, Johnny Got His Gun, The Great Gatsby.
No full length novels in AP Lang. In fact, it says that in the coursebook: no novels are read in class- we read a good deal of short non-fiction writing, analyze speeches, and arguments, and choose a columnist to follow throughout the duration of the class.
I think it has been a good mix.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:56
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ones we’ve heard of and read? Ones that are more than 10-20 years old?
I don’t think my all-honors senior has read more than a couple books I’ve heard of, and even those were ones she chose from a school list, not books assigned to the whole class.
Barely ! It seems that pretty much every book they read is about the story of a slave, the story of a boy during the civil rights movement, the story of a trans kid, the story of a gay kid, ...
Before everyone comes with guns blazing, I am a liberal, not MAGA, and encourage my kids to read such books but I ALSO want them to read the classics. Why can't we just have a happy medium?! Read some of these books in addition to Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, ...
You know your kids can read whatever they want on their own?
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:53
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Ones we’ve heard of and read? Ones that are more than 10-20 years old?
I don’t think my all-honors senior has read more than a couple books I’ve heard of, and even those were ones she chose from a school list, not books assigned to the whole class.
Barely ! It seems that pretty much every book they read is about the story of a slave, the story of a boy during the civil rights movement, the story of a trans kid, the story of a gay kid, ...
Before everyone comes with guns blazing, I am a liberal, not MAGA, and encourage my kids to read such books but I ALSO want them to read the classics. Why can't we just have a happy medium?! Read some of these books in addition to Mark Twain, Shakespeare, Ernest Hemingway, ...
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:46
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They aren’t, not really. Public high school, in AP english lang. They have literally read zero full books yet. They had to pick two off a long list, not really classics. A mix. But they haven’t even had to red them yet- its March
AP Lang is intended to be focused on shorter texts with the purpose to understand the authors purpose in the writing and why they used the stylistic choices they did. Reading the classics would not be very good for this. In AP Lit a lot more classics are read. So far we have read Macbeth, Song of Solomon, Frankenstein, Madea, Oedipus Rex, and our next unit is the choice of any classic book. This is a large public highschool in dc.
They read one book in all of honors 11 English- Beowulf. Honors 9 and 10 had a couple more, but not more than 2-3 books for the whole year and not classics, except a Shakespeare play
Yes because it is meant to somewhat mimic what kids learn in AP lang. At least at my school so they are reading less classics and are focused more on short texts
I don’t get it, are you defending this poor excuse for public education?
As a public school student the education I have gotten from my english classes has been not poor at all. As a freshman we read around 2 books a term. Sophmore year we did about 1 a term but they were much longer and we learned how to write analytical essays. Junior year I took AP lang which teaches you about important things in writing such as syntax, diction, different writing styles/purposes, figuartive language, and more. This though comes at the cost of long texts because it is simply not realistic to read the classics and learn about all of the different writing components. Despite this we still managed to read four books. Now senior year in AP Lit we have read multiple classics, greek tradgedies, modern literature, and shakespeare. If you think the standard for an English class is solely reading the classics then yeah I guess it would be a poor education but the main purpose is to teach students how to read and write like a scholar. Which is what English 3 and AP Lang mainly focus on and then after you are able to do so you can then read the classics and understad and write about them in a more complex manner.
A comment defending the quality of your English education that manages to misspell five common words is either depressing or pitch perfect satire.
Lmao im a teenager formal diction and perfect spelling is not required when dicking around on DC Urban moms. Obvi i know how to spell when im writing an actual important paper or any assignment in general. But it does not invalidate my point about how English class works. Idk why adults think the classics are the ultimate measure of a good education.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:44
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They aren’t, not really. Public high school, in AP english lang. They have literally read zero full books yet. They had to pick two off a long list, not really classics. A mix. But they haven’t even had to red them yet- its March
AP Lang is intended to be focused on shorter texts with the purpose to understand the authors purpose in the writing and why they used the stylistic choices they did. Reading the classics would not be very good for this. In AP Lit a lot more classics are read. So far we have read Macbeth, Song of Solomon, Frankenstein, Madea, Oedipus Rex, and our next unit is the choice of any classic book. This is a large public highschool in dc.
They read one book in all of honors 11 English- Beowulf. Honors 9 and 10 had a couple more, but not more than 2-3 books for the whole year and not classics, except a Shakespeare play
Yes because it is meant to somewhat mimic what kids learn in AP lang. At least at my school so they are reading less classics and are focused more on short texts
I don’t get it, are you defending this poor excuse for public education?
As a public school student the education I have gotten from my english classes has been not poor at all. As a freshman we read around 2 books a term. Sophmore year we did about 1 a term but they were much longer and we learned how to write analytical essays. Junior year I took AP lang which teaches you about important things in writing such as syntax, diction, different writing styles/purposes, figuartive language, and more. This though comes at the cost of long texts because it is simply not realistic to read the classics and learn about all of the different writing components. Despite this we still managed to read four books. Now senior year in AP Lit we have read multiple classics, greek tradgedies, modern literature, and shakespeare. If you think the standard for an English class is solely reading the classics then yeah I guess it would be a poor education but the main purpose is to teach students how to read and write like a scholar. Which is what English 3 and AP Lang mainly focus on and then after you are able to do so you can then read the classics and understad and write about them in a more complex manner.
A comment defending the quality of your English education that manages to misspell five common words is either depressing or pitch perfect satire.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:40
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Ones we’ve heard of and read? Ones that are more than 10-20 years old?
I don’t think my all-honors senior has read more than a couple books I’ve heard of, and even those were ones she chose from a school list, not books assigned to the whole class.
Who made you the arbiter of what’s worth reading? New works of literature are produced constantly. What does you having heard of it has to do with anything?
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:38
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:and this is HS? We read that in MS.Anonymous wrote:Yes, and I love it. Lord of the Flies and Gatsby coming soon.
DP. To be fair, I don’t think the average middle schooler has ever really been ready to grasp Gatsby.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:36
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They aren’t, not really. Public high school, in AP english lang. They have literally read zero full books yet. They had to pick two off a long list, not really classics. A mix. But they haven’t even had to red them yet- its March
AP Lang is intended to be focused on shorter texts with the purpose to understand the authors purpose in the writing and why they used the stylistic choices they did. Reading the classics would not be very good for this. In AP Lit a lot more classics are read. So far we have read Macbeth, Song of Solomon, Frankenstein, Madea, Oedipus Rex, and our next unit is the choice of any classic book. This is a large public highschool in dc.
They read one book in all of honors 11 English- Beowulf. Honors 9 and 10 had a couple more, but not more than 2-3 books for the whole year and not classics, except a Shakespeare play
Yes because it is meant to somewhat mimic what kids learn in AP lang. At least at my school so they are reading less classics and are focused more on short texts
I don’t get it, are you defending this poor excuse for public education?
As a public school student the education I have gotten from my english classes has been not poor at all. As a freshman we read around 2 books a term. Sophmore year we did about 1 a term but they were much longer and we learned how to write analytical essays. Junior year I took AP lang which teaches you about important things in writing such as syntax, diction, different writing styles/purposes, figuartive language, and more. This though comes at the cost of long texts because it is simply not realistic to read the classics and learn about all of the different writing components. Despite this we still managed to read four books. Now senior year in AP Lit we have read multiple classics, greek tradgedies, modern literature, and shakespeare. If you think the standard for an English class is solely reading the classics then yeah I guess it would be a poor education but the main purpose is to teach students how to read and write like a scholar. Which is what English 3 and AP Lang mainly focus on and then after you are able to do so you can then read the classics and understad and write about them in a more complex manner.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:33
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:and this is HS? We read that in MS.Anonymous wrote:Yes, and I love it. Lord of the Flies and Gatsby coming soon.
Yes, freshman.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:08
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Mine has been assigned Hamlet and Great Gatsby, among others. I guess those didn't get canceled. Also assigned things like Paper Towns which is from 2008 and a load of garbage.
Anonymous
03/06/2026 10:08
Subject: Is your high schooler reading classic novels in school?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:They aren’t, not really. Public high school, in AP english lang. They have literally read zero full books yet. They had to pick two off a long list, not really classics. A mix. But they haven’t even had to red them yet- its March
AP Lang is intended to be focused on shorter texts with the purpose to understand the authors purpose in the writing and why they used the stylistic choices they did. Reading the classics would not be very good for this. In AP Lit a lot more classics are read. So far we have read Macbeth, Song of Solomon, Frankenstein, Madea, Oedipus Rex, and our next unit is the choice of any classic book. This is a large public highschool in dc.
They read one book in all of honors 11 English- Beowulf. Honors 9 and 10 had a couple more, but not more than 2-3 books for the whole year and not classics, except a Shakespeare play
Yes because it is meant to somewhat mimic what kids learn in AP lang. At least at my school so they are reading less classics and are focused more on short texts
I don’t get it, are you defending this poor excuse for public education?