Do the Classics Matter?
(I just finished an AP course offered at Worcester in Oxford, England. The course was led by Jim Cross.)
One thing that struck me repeatedly at this conference was the teachers’ enthusiasm for the classics. I really like the classics, but I was surprised that so many teachers had set up a curriculum that implies literature ended in 1925.
We spend a great deal of time talking about how Shakespeare is relevant, but I was surprised by how many of the teachers struggled to identify relevant authors who are writing today. Shouldn’t we work just as hard to support contemporary authors by modeling to students that they are capable of producing highly literate texts that affect our lives?
So I’ll close by asking which contemporary texts you’d add to the AP syllabus.
