The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Whether it be completely pointless or makes absolutely no sense, Elder and schools around the nation continue to push books onto kids which they don’t actually enjoy.  These books are usually nonsensical and have nothing in common with most high school students.  The problem with this is that it creates a disinterest where students would much rather read SparkNotes and miss important details than waste their time actually reading the novel assigned to them.

For example, The Chocolate War is a great illustration of a book that is literally about a kid and his struggles of having to sell chocolate.  This book is oddly one of the most banned books in history just because of a few raunchy scenes, despite the main premise revolving around being a girl scout and selling chocolates from door to door.  However, I am not mad that it is banned in most cases because it is in my opinion a terrible book.

Then you have I Am the Cheese, which is as bad as the title appears.  This novel is entirely about a kid riding around on a bike, but by the end of the book we come to find out everything that we just read was completely fake and the kid is actually inside of a mental facility.

Chris Henry said, “There are several other books I’d rather read, this one in particular was very boring and didn’t achieve anything.”  Once again, just another book that we are forced to read at school that we really don’t want to.

Third, we have the Old man and the Sea. This short story, believe it or not, is about an old man and the sea.  Although relatively short, I still feel like I wasted valuable breathing time while reading this.  Louis Faillace said, “Although I did not read it, based on discussion in class I would say it was a giant waste of time.”

There truly is not much to it other than a fisherman who tries to catch a fish.  In other words, I could just go watch Wicked Tuna or Deadliest Catch on tv, or better yet go outside and fish myself rather than read this book because I would learn a whole lot more.

Reading these types of books is a bigger issue than many may think.  As generation to generation continues to move throughout school, kids are becoming less attentive and refuse to read.  Our reading curriculum is absolutely absurd and I don’t see it getting better anytime soon.  For whatever reason we have to read Shakespeare on a yearly basis when instead we could be reading books like, The Hunger Games, The Outsiders, or Huckleberry Finn.  As a senior about to graduate I can vouch for all of these books as something that I genuinely enjoyed reading and meant something to me.

A minor issue with our reading curriculum directly correlates to student’s parents.  Every year there are parents who push the school to get rid of genuinely good books because they are overprotective of their children and believe that these books will have a negative impression on their growth.  Now, I am no expert on parenting, but that is absolutely ridiculous.  One of the most critically acclaimed and well known books, Harry Potter, made it onto the “List of Banned Books” because it has to do with “sorcery”.  Seriously people, we are not living in the Puritan era and these thoughts need to be put to rest.

The truth of the matter is, books need to be something that students can get involved with and enjoy learning about, not just time-fillers with little to no purpose.