Just read The Great Gatsby for the first time as an adult, got me thinking about "required reading" in school

By silver_cougar4061

I just read TGG for the first time as an adult, and wow—I can’t believe how much it still fits with the world we live in. It really nails that whole idea of trying to recreate the past and never quite getting there. I’m probably going to be thinking about it for days. This also brought back memories of high school. Like a lot of people, it was “required reading,” so I was stuck reading it way too early. I honestly don’t remember much about how I felt at the time, but I *do* remember it being kind of tedious and boring when I was 16. That same vibe happened with other classics too—like Great Expectations when I was 14. I get that sometimes kids can handle stuff like that, but it feels like most of the time Dickens and the like are just assigned without much consideration for what teenagers can actually enjoy. Because of that, I basically developed a dislike of reading for a while. It was turned into homework, not something fun. I didn’t really get my love for reading back until my mid-20s, and now I always have a book around. But it makes me wonder how many kids end up permanently turned off by these classics because they were made to get through them in class and didn’t connect at all. That’s what feels sad to me, because these books can be so much more when you’re finally in the right headspace to understand them. I picked up a copy of Gatsby that was definitely used before—there are notes and highlights in the margins. I’m totally fine with annotations, but the comments were like: “Tom is mad.” “Gatsby is rich” “Nick lives next door” I mean… do they still do the “you must take notes” thing in school? I remember doing that. Those notes just felt like someone was bored out of their mind, forcing themselves to write something down so they could say they did it, and probably not going to touch the book again after that. It’s kind of heartbreaking, honestly. And the testing part—ugh. I remember being quizzed on plot points nonstop, but I don’t recall ever being asked anything like, “How does this book make you feel?” or “How do you relate to it?” Maybe I just had bad teachers. Either way, it seems like the system would be better if kids could choose books that actually match their level and what’s going on in their lives, instead of dragging everyone through the same stuff. Anyway, sorry for the rant—I just had a lot of thoughts and wanted to see what other people think.