Jeez, lighten up!
Crisp has come home with another wonderful piece of light reading for school.
This has been a tough year, they told us the theme in English would be the human condition, but do they have to make all the books so deep and meaningful? So far they’ve been through Of Mice and Men, 1984, Master Harold and the Boys, Night, Maus, and now The Kite Runner. All great books it’s true, but whatever happened to reading for fun?
The themes of all these books are pretty dark, and while I know they want to try and teach a little history and social responsibility along the way do they have to do it with every book? Couldn’t they throw something light in there every now and then?
The one saving grace is The Taming of the Shrew which he seems to be enjoying (I’d kick his ass if he didn’t), but every other book he comes in with he now approaches with dread no matter how much we try to encourage him. This is a kid who used to love reading, and by piling dark book on dark book he’s starting to lose that spark. 15 is a rough year for teenagers, they have more than enough angst of their own to deal without every book the school makes them read piling on more.
There are lots of great books that tell happy, uplifting stories- how about cutting the kids a break and giving them one of those to read once in a while?